The speculating is over. GateHouse Media, owners of the Pekin Daily Times and the Canton Daily Ledger, have agreed to buy the Peoria Journal Star and six other daily newspapers owned by Copley Press for $380 million, according to the Journal Star’s report. The best analysis of this so far is on Billy’s blog — here and here.
As I see it, there are two main concerns with this transaction.
One is competition. By buying the papers in Peoria, Galesburg, Springfield, and Lincoln, while already owning newspapers in Pekin and Canton, they practically have a monopoly on central Illinois dailies, with the notable exception of the Bloomington Pantagraph. Media consolidation is generally not a good thing.
On the other hand, it raises the importance of sites like Peoria Pundits and the Peoria Chronicle. Citizen journalism provides more diversity of opinion in the marketplace and allows more opportunity for minority positions to get information out to the public.
The other concern is quality. As GateHouse consolidates its operations among the newly acquired papers, staff is going to get cut — the concern is whether so much staff will be cut that the paper won’t be able to cover as much local content as it does right now. That would be a real shame.
I do a fair amount of criticizing the editorial positions of the Journal Star, but when it comes to local coverage, no other media does a more thorough job. You get things in the paper that you just don’t get anywhere else — obituaries, real estate transactions, exhaustive coverage of professional and local sports including high school sports, arts coverage, neighborhood coverage, police/fire/courts coverage, etc. This is real asset to the city, and should be preserved.
UPDATE: Paul Gordon is singing GateHouse’s praises now. Well, technically he’s just reporting, but it sounds really upbeat, doesn’t it?
Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE: FIG) is the private equity firm that controls Gate House Media. They also recently purchased control of RailAmerica which of course owns the TP&W Railroad. Interesting, that means that PJS employees and railroad employees have the same parent employer. Perhaps a change in editorial content – even a little would be welcome- concerning railroads will be forthcoming.
Ed Sanders,
Now isn’t that interesting? Kind of a marriage made in heaven! The PJSEB has been railroading readers with their often twisted and tainted views on various subjects for years! Of course the most asinine have been with Mike Bailey at the lead. Now to see if the new owners keep him up front or throw him back into the coal car where he belongs! ^oo^~
I don’t doubt they’ll make cuts, but what the union won’t admit, is that it can make those cuts without effecting the paper.
By having the Kewane Star Courier, Macomb Daily Journal, Canton Daily Ledger and the Pekin Times, they can get rid of a handful of reporters that report in those areas and just use the resources already in place.
I find it funny that so many people are worried about the editorial board and not the news content.
Perhaps my viewpoint is somewhat jaded, but is anyone else uncomfortable with the fact that the PJS is now the “flagship” of a group of papers that includes weeklies and shoppers? Should we be impressed with and proud of that? I took it as a downgrade . . .