Beacon Journal Goes Canadian

After months of agony for staff members of the Akron Beacon Journal, they now know who their new owner will be. It’s a Canadian private, family-owned media company, Black Press Ltd., which is headed by David Black. The takeover is slated for late June, right after McClatchy’s purchase of Knight Ridder becomes final.

The sale price was a reported $165 million. Black Press owns more than 100 weekly and daily newspapers, most in western U.S. and Canada. The Beacon Journal will be Black's largest newspaper.

The Beacon Journal’s Web site, Ohio.com, understandably had the most complete coverage on the sale with a package that includes video of BJ publisher Jim Crutchfield’s announcement to the staff Wednesday. In a letter to the staff, read by Crutchfield, Black stressed his support for local journalism.

BJ editor Debra Adams Simmons said that Black showed the most interest in journalism quality of all the non-local bidders.

“We believe he shares our commitment to high-quality local news. The entire newsroom is looking forward to a bright future,” Simmons said in a story by BJ business writer Gloria Irwin.

No layoffs are planned and existing labor contracts will be honored. Also no immediate changes in the newspaper’s leadership are planned.

In a sidebar, BJ business writer Jim Mackinnon wrote, “Colleagues and critics call Black a tough-minded and honest businessman who holds his papers accountable but lets them operate autonomously for the most part.

“He is known for creative and surprising thinking.

“About six years ago, Black rescued a daily newspaper from extinction in Hawaii (the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, now Black’s largest paper) and along the way showed he's not afraid to duke it out with a much larger competitor.”

The Plain Dealer, whose owner, Advance Publications, was considered to be one on the major bidders, also reported on the sale although the story carried no details about Advance’s bid.

The Canton Repository carried the Associated Press’ story with local comments by Rep publisher David Greenfield. He urged that the new owner be given a chance to produce a quality product before people decide on the merits of the sale.

Greenfield said, “I was publisher here when the Canton newspaper was sold to Copley Press, and it turned out to be a enormously positive thing.”

'Private owners can be positive for newspapers'

In a story Friday, Ohio.com reported on a number of aspects related to the BJ's purchase by a private owner. Northeast Ohio will have no major newspaper owned by publicly held company.

Interestingly Merrill Lynch's Lauren Rich Fine, perhaps the nation's leading media analyst, had made a similar point in a speech to the Akron Roundtable June 1. The Plain Dealer's story on Fine's speech led: "In an era of shrinking profits, newspapers would be better off if local billionaires or privately held companies owned them. . . ."

Referring to Fine's speech, Ohio.com Friday quoted her as having said, "Any company that doesn't need to go public shouldn't."

Both in Fine's speech and comments by analyst John Morton in Friday's story on Ohio.com, it was emphasized that newspapers are still very profitable.

Morton said, "Newspapers are still cash cows. Even those 12 (newspapers) that McClatchy is shucking off have pretty high cash flows; they're just not in growing markets."