Worcester Remaining Positive in Wake of Telegram Being Sold Again
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Monday, November 24, 2014
Patrick Sargent, GoLocal Worcester Contributor
As
reported by GoLocal on Thursday, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette has been sold again. The new owners are GateHouse Media's parent company, New Media Investment Group. According to the reports, New Media paid $280 million for the Halifax Media Group.
This is the third time in 14 months the Telegram has been part of a sale. Last summer, Principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, John Henry, purchased the Telegram, along with the Boston Globe, from the New York Times. This past May, Henry sold the Telegram to the Halifax Media Group. Halifax assets include 36 newspapers and websites. According to a statement released by New Media, the Telegram will strengthen the Northeast presence of GateHouse.
Positive Reactions in Worcester
"People will always get nervous when the ownership changes hands so often. GateHouse media has a lot of ties to Massachusetts publications so I think it can be very positive," said Michael Ricardi, host of WNRC's 'The Power Hour.' "I think the T&G is such a valued part of the community and they are being acquired by a company that owns other respectable publications in the state. I do feel it's a step in the right direction."
GateHouse Media now owns fifteen daily newspapers in the state, and nearly 100 paid weekly newspapers, as well as their affiliated websites, shoppers, and free weekly papers. The acquisition of the assets Halifax Media Group strengthens GateHouse's presence in the southeast portion of the country. Resulting in total circulation of nearly 635,000 daily and over 750,000 on Sunday. Along with the Telegram, New Media purchased 35 other newspapers.
"I think anytime you see a business change hands that frequent you feel like the future of that company or industry is diminishing. However, in this case, I believe the Telegram has fallen into the right hands. With my personal experience with taking over a long standing business, I have learned that as much as you want to keep things the same you have to adapt with the times," said John Richard, owner of Parkway Bar and Restaurant on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester.
What Does This Mean for T&G?
If it's anything like it's predecessors, New Media will come to the Telegram looking to make many cuts across the board. When Halifax purchased the paper, the company cut 29 jobs within the first month. Many more followed. New Media will likely make more cuts and focus most of its efforts on the Telegram's online presence. New Media currently owns nearly 450 publications and their related web sites.
Richard said, "We all know the media world is and has been moving in a different direction with rapid improvements of technology. I believe New Media Investments is an expert at promoting the news in all areas of modern media. They have a focus in promoting news and advertising in markets similar to Worcester County. I think this can only be a good thing for the future of Worcester news and you will certainly see people getting their information in ways that we weren't accustomed to in recent years."
Related Slideshow: The Living History of the Telegram and Gazette
From contamination to a sale, and injunction to layoffs, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette has been through quite an interesting run in a very short time. Since 2012, GoLocal has been chronicling the goings on of Worcester's only daily printed newspaper. Take a look at our coverage:
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April 6, 2012
If the Worcester Telegram & Gazette was offering alternatives for the 64 employees it is laying off, Luis Lopez didn’t get the memo.
“I knew it was coming, but it’s hard,” the 37-year-old father of two girls said of being laid off Monday from the job he held for six years at the T&G’s Millbury printing plant. “When I came here, they promised me they would not lay me off. Now look at me.”
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June 22, 2012
The New York Times Company has sold a contaminated Worcester Telegram and Gazette building to a local development agency, leaving taxpayers on the hook for potentially up to $1.1 million in cleanup costs.
Before the sale, Telegram and Gazette publisher Bruce Gaultney publicly promised that the building was “not a brownfield.”
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June 27, 2012
The New York Times Company announced that they have agreed to pay for cleanup costs associated with contamination left at the former location of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette at 18-20 Franklin Street.
The announcement comes just days after a GoLocalWorcester investigative report that unveiled that the property was a brownsfield site, despite claims by the publisher that it was not. The non-profit Worcester Business Development Corporation, which bought the property, is receiving government funds to pay for the cleanup of the former newspaper headquarters.
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July 2, 2012
Two local unions are concerned about the health hazards at the former Telegram & Gazette building, after the NY Times Company sold the property to a local nonprofit and the building was declared a brownfield site.
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July 10, 2012
The NY Times Company is only committed to paying 10% of costs to cleanup the hazardous materials at the T&G building, leaving taxpayers footing most of the $1.1 million bill to clean up asbestos, lead, and other contaminants.
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July 11, 2013
Local taxpayers are demanding that the NY Times Company takes responsibility and pays for the T&G cleanup.
Thus far, the corporation has only offered to pay for 10% of the estimated $1.1 million cleanup costs to rid the building of asbestos, lead, and other hazardous contaminants.
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July 13, 2012
Massachusetts legislators, candidates, and councilors are calling for the NY Times to contribute more money for the cleanup of the T&G building contamination. Across the board and across the aisle, they say there’s a need for more corporate responsibility and taxpayers should not be stuck with the bill when a large company is involved.
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July 24, 2012
The Boston Globe and Worcester T&G are facing layoffs and buyouts, affecting a total of about fifty employees between the two markets. Both newspapers are owned by the same media group which is a subsidiary of the New York Times Company.
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February 7, 2013
Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray said that the brownfield site cleanup at the former home of the Worcester Telegram may still take some funding from the former owner, the NY Times Co. The building was sold by the news company after an estimated $1.1 million in cleanup costs to remove asbestos, lead, and other contaminants.
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February 20, 2013
The New York Times Company announced on Wednesday that the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Boston Globe and their related websites are up for sale.
The company has retained Evercore Partners to advise and manage the sales process of the two newspapers, along with the other related properties contained within the New York Times Co.'s New England Media Group.
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August 3, 2013
The New York Times Company has dumped the Boston Globe, Worcester Telegram and some other holdings for less than 6% of what they had paid for the combined assets over the past three decades. John Henry's sports and media group will pay approximately $70 million.
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August 5, 2013
On Saturday morning, August 3, at 3 A.M., the New York Times Company confirmed the sale of the Boston Globe, Worcester Telegram, and other New England assets to John Henry in an all-cash, $70 million deal.
Go Local reached out to top experts on media to get their perspective on the transaction, and insights as to what this means for the future of the paper, as well as industry as a whole. The Boston Globe, once the biggest force in media, has been in decline over the past decade, and now faces an uncertain future.
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August 18, 2013
The tectonic shifts changing the global media landscape are rolling through Southeastern New England, right on schedule.
The media empire of the Providence Journal’s parent company, Dallas-based A.H. Belo, has been coming apart for years, and now, with the sale last week of its Riverside, California, operation, the Press-Enterprise, down to just two main properties. The hope here is that the Projo will, too, be sold before long and end the chronic and debilitating cycle of downsizing for the newsroom and bonuses for the executive suite that has marked the Belo regime.
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October 23, 2013
For John Henry, the St. Louis Cardinals may pale in comparison to the challenges he faces with the Telegram & Gazette and the Boston Globe. In Worcester, he’s now dealing with a temporary restraining order that blocks his purchase of the two papers. In Boston, the Globe’s headquarters sit on land that is highly contaminated.
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October 24, 2013
Judge Shannon Frison of Worcester Superior Court has lifted an injunction blocking the sale of the Boston Globe, and affiliated Worcester Times & Gazette, to Red Sox owner John Henry. On Thursday afternoon, the judge ruled removed the order which was requested as part of a lawsuit filed by former Telegram & Gazette adult carriers.
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