Press Democrat is being sold

[b.w. rose]

This is the news article on the sale:

https://bit.ly/tx1hWT

This is how the unions at the paper are responding:

https://bit.ly/rUAlkM

This is who the new owners are:

https://bit.ly/uFfMtS

This is media industry speculation about what will happen to the PD; see last several grafs:

https://bit.ly/vt0W8C


This is the screwed up way in which the announcement came about:
https://on.wsj.com/umLOm5

[Philip Tymon]

The Press-Democrat is being sold by the New York Times to Halifax Media Holdings. This is a fairly new media holding company and does not have much of a track record. But what track record it has indicates it has a right-wing philosophy.

The agreement is not finalized. Perhaps there is something we can yet do to block this disaster?

Any ideas?

Philip Tymon

[Peacetown Jonathan]

This is the really disconcerting part of the PD coverage of the sale; from halfway into the article:

"The buyer has a short track record to evaluate its approach to newspaper acquisitions. After buying the Daytona paper, the new owners cut staff by 10 percent right away, and the new publisher Michael Redding sent out an open letter that was “pretty revealing,” said Rick Edmonds, media business analyst for The Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for journalism located in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The letter explained the new owners were veteran newspapermen committed to local news and a diversity of voices. But it also announced major changes to the opinion page.

“Our own editorials will champion free enterprise, individual rights and responsibilities, and the importance of community involvement,” Redding wrote."


In political-ese, this means lower taxes on corproations and billionaires, less regulation of the environment, and second amendment rights the only part of the Constitution that matters (I have yet to see a corportae media company or pundit complain about the right to smoke marijuana without being thrown in jail, or the right to privacy or the right of a human being not to be tortured.

Uh-oh.

I have an unpleasant feeling that we re going to come to appreciate the moderate nature of the centrist Press Democrat that we have now....

["Mad" Miles]

The economic restructuring, i.e. downsizing, speedup and squeezing maximum profit from the newspaper industry, has been going on with a vengeance since the late nineties.

Aside from competition from the internet, there was a period of unprecedented profits that were coming in back in the eighties and early nineties, during the Clinton prosperity years. And when that started to wain, publishers started squeezing to maintain those 8, 10, 15% levels.

Traditional profits from publishing have been around 2-3%. (These numbers are from memory. They're ballpark.I do not claim they are exact, but the stats were in that range. Feel free to look up the exact ones.) They got fat and lazy and didn't want to go back to the old days.

So, layoffs, consolidations, page reductions, print size reductions. Obviously there were other factors, paper cost, technology costs, energy costs, inflation, etc..

What has been going on in the newspaper business is similar to financial services, electronic media (TV, Radio). Mergers and acquisitions, consolidation, market dominance, maximizing return on investment.

Screw the workers, screw the consumers, screw the public, screw everything but the bottom line for the shareholders. Nothing new really.

What choice do we have?

[rossmen]

ok the pd is being sold to a right wing chop shop. oh well i guess the liberal establishment of northern california will have less media support in the future. i mourn this change :.-(

flaglerlive.com/20095/michael-redding-news-journalhttps://www.google.com/images/nav_logo99.png); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; visibility: hidden; background-position: 0px -243px; background-repeat: initial initial; ">

[Phil DeBar]

https://flaglerlive.com/32486/halifa...comment-487423
here's more background and -bad- news about the PD's new ownership.
sez i: ickkkkkk

[Peace Voyager]

l

ok the pd is being sold to a right wing chop shop. oh well i guess the liberal establishment of northern california will have less media support in the future. i mourn this change :.-(

It's all relative.

Never considered the Press Democrat to be liberal. Thought it was funny when many letters to the editor would claim it to be even left leaning.

All I ask for in a media outlet, is to thoroughly investigate and report in a fair, and honest manner. The right and left bias is for the opinion columnist and talk show banter. I'd bet the PD lays off the most fair and honest reporters first; there are only a very few of them left now.

It'd be great if folks here with the means to invest, looked to revive the North Bay Progressive; the sweet paper Peter Philips, and other good guys, ran several years ago. I sold advertising for them; our clients really appreciated having a place to market to the many progressive people in this region.

The local alt. indy press has so lost their will to do real investigative reporting, that 3 out of 4 issues per month, do not much more than promote arts ,entertainment, food & wine. Nothing wrong with that, if it were in balance with the real issues; which are usually un- or under-reported.

Wish there was no need for Project Censored, rather than more need for it, because the alt indy press sold its soul years ago. I witnessed it; worked for LA Weekly in the 80's and at the Bohemian as it changed from the Independent in 2000.

Case in point, after the less than thorough investigation regarding Paul Hobbs Winery and John Jenkel; I contacted them about continuing to allow James Knight to promote Hobbs in the wine review section, while at the same time disclosing their horrific environmental and social practices. It looked as if Knight wrote it while drunk.

After conversations with the Publisher and Editor; they responded with the brilliant cover photo of the redwoods getting literally screwed. But in that same issue, there was Hobbs again, listed in the wine promotion section.

With so many truly family owned wineries here, with very good stewardship credibility; this was not just lazy; it's condemnable. I hope you will let them know what you think.

BTW Janus, from the local chapter of CAFF, Community Alliance of Family Farmers, has created a buying guide to help you make choices from wineries whose practices we can applaud. Much thanks to her for this work!

https://caff.org/about/northcoast/

Cheers,

Colleen Fernald

Support California Organic and Bio Dynamic Wines

Adastra *	Napa
Alma Rosa	Santa Rita
Ampelos Cellars *	Paso Robles
Araujo *	Napa
Barra Mendocino *	Mendocino
Beckmen	Santa Ynez
Benzinger *	Sonoma
Bonny Doon	Santa Cruz
Bonterra *	Mendocino
Bucklin Old Hill Ranch **	Sonoma
Casa Nuestra *	Napa
Ceago	Lake
Chance Creek *	Mendocino
Cline Cellars *	Sonoma
Coates	Napa
Cotourri Feingold *	Sonoma
Crazy Flower Wines *	Napa
De Loach *	Sonoma
De Tierra	Monterrey
Ehlers Estate *	Napa
Flora Springs	Napa
Fitzpatrick	Sierra Foothills
Frey *	Mendocino
Frog's Leap **	Napa
Girasole *	Mendocino
Ggrich Hills *	Napa
Green Truck *	Mendocino
Grist *	Sonoma
H. Cotourri *	Sonoma
Hall *	Napa
Hallcrest/Organic Wine Works	Santa Cruz
Hawley Vineyards*	Sonoma
Heller Estate	Carmel Valley
Horse & Plow *	Sonoma
Jeriko *	Mendocino
Joseph Phelps *	Napa
Kelseyville Wine	Sierra Foothills
La Clarine	Napa
La Rocca *	Mendocino
Lolonis	Napa
Long Meadow Ranch *	Mendocino
Luna *	Napa
Madonna *	Napa
Marimar Torres *	Sonoma
Michel-Schlumberger *	Sonoma
Montemaggiore	Sonoma
Mendocino Wine Co *	Mendocino
Morgan	Santa Lucia
Neal Family *	Napa
Nevada City Wine Guild	Nevada City
Old World Winery *	Sonoma
Organic Wine Works	Santa Cruz
Orleans Hill	Nevada City
Pacific Redwood *	Mendocino
Parducci *	Mendocino
Patianna *	Mendocino
Paul Dolan *	Mendocino
Peju Province *	Napa
Presidio Vineyard *	Santa Barbara
Preston of Dry Creek *	Sonoma
Porter Bass *	Sonoma
Porter Creek *	Sonoma
Puma Springs	Sonoma
Quintessa *	Napa
Quivira *	Sonoma
Robert Siniskey *	Napa
Saracina Vineyards	Mendocino
Shenandoah	Sierra Foothills
Silver Mountain	Santa Cruz
Sky Saddle *	Sonoma
Sobon Estate	Sierra Foothills
Staglin Family Vineyard *	Napa
Tablas Creek	Paso Robles
Terra Savia *	Mendocino
Testa Vineyard	Mendocino
Topolos *	Sonoma
Tres Sabores *	Napa
Truett Hurst Winery *	Sonoma
Viader *	Napa
Wild Hog **	Sonoma
Wing Canyon *	Napa
Yorkville Cellars	Mendocino
ZD Winery *	Napa

This list was compiled from several organizations that represent organic and biodynamic wineries along with individual websites. This is meant as a guide only. Grape growers were not included.
* indicates a local winery in Sonoma, Mendocino or Napa.
** denotes local, organic /biodynamic & dry farmed

[b.w. rose]

What’s going to happen with the Press Democrat?

Here are several possible scenarios:

A) New owners do nothing in the short term (0-3 years) because the other 15 newspapers are the major reason they bought the NYT Regional Media Group. Papers in the Southeast, where there are no unions and no high Bay Area cost of living factors, fit their goals and an isolated property in California does not. Meanwhile, they impose hiring freezes, wage freezes, dramatic cost cuts. They bring in a new publisher, editor and editorial page director, but pretty much ignore the place. They suspend negotiations on current labor contracts that expire on Dec. 31. Staff is reduced through attrition. They entertain offers to purchase.

B) New owners come in, make cosmetic changes to make it more attractive and flip the PD to another owner.

C) Same as B) except that they quickly sell to the Media News Group because it owns everything else in Northern California (for full list see https://bit.ly/29rG3Z ) except the SF Chronicle. They fire many top editors and bring in their own. They require everyone to reapply for their jobs. Of the 90 current PD employees involved in news gathering (50 reporters, copy editors and photogs in the union; 17 exempt employees in management; 2 editorial writers, 5 Argus Courier staffers, 5 involved in website production and 10 in the North Bay Business Journal), a total of 30 are cut in a merger of all news operations. (Current industry standards are one “news producer” for every 1,000 subscribers, which means they believe the PD needs only 60). Valuable parcels adjacent to the Rohnert Park printing plant are sold to interests that want to develop a shopping center or hotel near the proposed Indian gaming facility. Media News Group closes one of the three printing plants (Marin IJ, SR Press Democrat or Ukiah Daily Journal), centralizes editing and layout production there, prints a single Northern California paper in one city and sells property containing the other two plants. Centralizing production means large scale layoffs, just like they imposed when their East Bay papers were consolidated.

D) Same as B) except that Media News Group’s financial problems mean it doesn’t have the cash to buy the PD. Local investors assemble a community-based coalition to buy the paper. Likely to be involved: financier Henry Trione (several years ago, he made a $20+ million bid to NYT); commercial real estate investor Larry Wassem; Peanuts widow Jeannie Schulz; The Community Foundation. These owners institute wholesale staff changes, paying no attention to current industry staffing standards. Nordstrom’s buys the Rohnert Park print plant site and anchors a center there. The downtown PD office and adjacent parking lot is purchased by developers of a downtown hotel. Business and editorial offices are moved to the Airport Park Business Center and the new owners print the now 5-days a week paper in Ukiah. The word “Democrat” is removed from the name on Page One. Keith Woods and Herb Williams become editorial writers. Snoopy replaces Chris Smith as columnist.

[Shepherd]

A new print and online newspaper is currently being organized for Sonoma County and possibly for the North Bay. A group of us from Occupy Santa Rosa and Occupy Sebastopol, and soon to be joined by Occupy Petaluma, have been meeting to craft this newspaper. Its goal is to tell Occupy stories and things that relate to them, which is a lot, from the perspectives of the 99%, rather than from the corporate perspective of the 1%, which the Press Democrat did.

One of the founding editors of Occupied Wall Street Journal, Michael Levitin, has been to two of our meetings. An award-winning journalist who graduated from El Molino High in Forestville, he has been visiting family here during the holidays. We will soon launch our fundraising campaign.

[b.w. rose]

Press Democrat officially sold to Halifax in $143 million deal that involves other papers as well.
Scant details here:
https://bit.ly/rZLtr2

[b.w. rose]

Press Democrat employees informed they will be told Thursday whether they will have jobs, according to this compassionate memo from corporate offices:

https://bit.ly/uUCP0G

Unions at the newspaper assert the labor contract must be followed by new owners:

https://bit.ly/t6XQut

[Shepherd]

Thank you, B.W., for continuing to keep us posted on this important development at the PD that will surely impact its workers and our county. It is good to get a sense of what we may be facing by the important facts that you are presenting. I welcome any further reflections that you may have regarding potential scenarios.

[b.w. rose]

An update on Thursday evening:

About a half dozen of the approximately 200 Press Democrat employees in the circulation, advertising and business services departments were told today that new owners Halifax would not be hiring them.

None of the approximately 90 employees in the news gathering divisions were let go and they were informed via email that they "would be offered employment" by the new owners.

The transaction is expected to finalize in mid to late January.

There remains persistent speculation that:

a) the newspaper will be flipped to another newspaper chain with closer roots in California, such as Media News Group.

or

b) a locally-based group of investors will make a bid on the newspaper in the range of $10 to $15 million.

More later.

[b.w. rose]

The latest on the sale....

The sale has been officially completed; story from the Press Democrat:

https://bit.ly/w7ubQG

Flipping the paper to Media News Group remains a possibility
This article notes that major investor in Halifax is also major investor in Media News Group & associated Bay Area News Group:

https://bit.ly/xtnbnE

Other recent developments:

All current Press Democrat employees must "reapply" for their jobs. The reapplication contains one form that says the employee agrees to be on a 60-day probationary period.

All part-time employees, except those represented by the unions, were terminated. Reportedly, this was because Halifax does not want to pay health benefits for part-timers.

Kaiser Permanente will no longer be offered as a health plan choice, as of Jan. 31. Reportedly, this was because Halifax does not contract with KP at any of its other new properties. So employees will have a choice of UnitedHealth's PPO or EPO.

The New York Times wants to opt out of the PD employee and retiree pension plan. Halifax has agreed to negotiate with unions over whether to continue making payments into the (defined benefit) pension plan.