The fate of my ex-employer is semi-known — McClatchy gets Knight Ridder, plans to immediately sell 12 papers, including Fort Wayne. Beyond that, I’m as clueless as anyone. Again, discuss.
Note: Fort Wayne Observed seems to have the energy to go after this one, and is speculating that whoever the buyer is, it’s already a done deal. We live in interesting times.
UPDATE: FWO now backtracking and saying the sale isn’t a done deal.
alex said on March 13, 2006 at 10:22 am
Didn’t Fort Wayne Observed mention a while back that some right-wing lunatic newspaper owner from out west someplace had started buying up Internet domain names that suggested he might be entering the Fort Wayne market? Oh, well. He can’t make the News-Sentinel any worse than it already is.
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Jim said on March 13, 2006 at 10:26 am
So will Fort Wayne now become a one-newspaper town? It’s amazing that a city of its size has been able to maintain two dailies for so long. It will be a sad day when the News-Sentinel folds, but I’m afraid that day will soon be here.
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MichaelG said on March 13, 2006 at 10:58 am
NPR reports that the Newspaper Guild is looking to buy those papers where they now represent the employees (I don’t know how many or which papers these may be) and that McClatchy may be very interested in the deal. McClatchy is going to sell a number of the papers anyway because they aren’t papers that McClatchy wants to keep and because they’ll need the money and because of anti-trust concerns. If some of Knight-Ridder’s papers are less than profitable and if there is potential for union strife . . .
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Dan said on March 13, 2006 at 2:33 pm
alex… I think the “right-wing lunatic” buying up website names mentioned at FWO was Warren Buffet.”
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alex said on March 13, 2006 at 3:38 pm
No, Dan, I’d have remembered that. This was a name unknown to me at the time.
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nancy said on March 13, 2006 at 3:42 pm
It’s Phil Anschutz you’re thinking of, Alex.
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Mitch said on March 14, 2006 at 7:48 am
Fort Wayne Observed cited a St. Paul Pioneer Press story yesterday that the Newspaper Guild will only be interested in 6 of the 12 newspapers; the News-Sentinel is not on that list.
Sale of all 12 will occur at closing. Thus, McClatchy will never have any point of ownership of the 12. This puts employees in a very tough position at those 12 newspapers.
There is no clear suitor for the Fort Wayne property. Gannett would seem to be the most likely fit given their position in Indianapolis, Lafayette and Marion. However, the JOA makes it a very complicated question.
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David D. Grandstaff said on March 14, 2006 at 8:04 am
…while neighbor North Manchester continues to have two papers, albeit weekly only.
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J.Gallagher M. D. said on March 24, 2006 at 1:28 pm
NNall: A personal inquiry if you will. I knew a young girl by the name “Nancy Nall” who lived at 79th and Ingleside on Chicago’s SouthEast side during the early ’50’s. I stumbled onto your column thru a mention of same by Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune. Could this be the same NN ? Reply at your own risk. Thanks Joe Gallagher Oak Lawn, Ill 60453
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nancy said on March 24, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Nope. I wasn’t born until the late ’50s. Never lived in Chicago. But we’re — the other NN and I — probably related.
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J.Gallagher M. D. said on March 25, 2006 at 5:41 pm
NN: Thank you for the prompt reply. Oh well. “nothing ventured, nothing gained”. JTG
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