The Tucson Citizen is reporting that its days may be numbered:
Gannett Company, Inc., announced Friday that it is putting the Tucson Citizen up for sale and that if no “viable” buyer is found, the paper will cease publication March 21.
The paper has been in publication since 1870.
The announcement was made by Robert J. Dickey, president of Gannett’s U.S. Community Publishing division, in the Citizen’s newsroom. Dickey said he travelled from Virginia to personally make the announcement.
In a letter to Citizen employees, Dickey said the decision to sell the paper was made because of “dramatic changes in our industry and the difficult economy.”
This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2009.
Man, this makes me so, so sad. This is crazy.
This is a clean way for Gannett to get the Citizen people out the door. Weeks later, watch for the announcement that Gannett is buying the Star from troubled Lee Enterprises.
Voila! Single-daily city?
I dunno, Hector. Could be … or it could be that both Lee and Gannett do better splitting 50 percent of the Star, if the JOA allows that. And it may.
I will miss the Citizen. Its always sad to see a long established company go under.
What I do not understand is all the whining for the loss of another dead tree news outlet that has resisted, no really refused, to enter the twenty-first century. Does either the Citizen or the Star have and RSS or Atom feed? No. The Arizona Republic does. Find me a major newspaper that doesn’t have a free feed for it’s readers. Heck, even a low-life weekly news and entertainment rag (;-))rag like the Tucson Weekly has feeds.
Gannett has shot itself in both feet, one leg, poked one if its eyes out and we’re supposed to feel sorry that it can’t keep its dead tree operations open? No, not me. I’ll miss the Citizen, I’ll miss the history and tradition behind the paper. It’s overlords killed, IMHO, intentionally by not walking into the present.
“…or it could be that both Lee and Gannett do better splitting 50 percent of the Star, if the JOA allows that. And it may.”
Huh? WTF you smoking with Nintzel? Such an arrangement would be absurd. Why should Gannett engage Lee in such a way? Lee has Chapter 11 written all over it (expect that later this year)- stock closed at 36 cents today. Gannett, though not robust, could probably just absorb Lee outright soon or wait for the Ch. 11 and pick and choose from the wreckage (such as ADS). But first it would probably need to get rid of (sorry, the phrasing) The Tucson Citizen to win board approval in one scenario, or judge approval in the other. Of course, neither scenario helps those unfortunate reporting majors, teen columnists, and online “pollsters” over at the The Citizen.
LEE:
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:LEE
GANNETT:
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:GCI
Hector, you are right on the money. Mark my word.
With any luck, Gannett will put all Star people on notice that they have to reapply for a reduced number of jobs (seen the new and improved Star this week???), and then some of the Citizen people can get work at the new rag.
Only fair.
Too bad these places never organized…. they had their chances….
Red, you’re forgetting about the fact that there’s a DOJ-enforced JOA that Gannett and Lee are under. And w/o the Citizen, the Star is still profitable. Lee is also still rather profitable, just way, way overextended. Anything is possible … but I stand by my original statement.
Unfortunate to say but this one makes sense. Afternoon dailies have been going down the tubes for a long time. I wonder what will happen with all of the reporting staff, though?
In other major j-news: Seattle’s PI is pretty much closing unless a buyer is found, and the Minneapolis Strib is filing bankruptcy.
.
More from the deadpool: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008614615_pisale11.html
Stand by whatever you want, for whatever unsupported reason. But in a Lee Ch. 11 scenario (“Lee is also still rather profitable, just way, way overextended”) the JOA will come under close modern judicial scrutiny in the context of an economically troubled industry.
But fear not, Jimmy Boegle, there will always be a daily newspaper in The Old Pueblo!
Rick,
Just a FYI, the Star does have a free RSS feed for all sections, as does the Citizen.
It’s a shame that the Citizen is in danger. I like their comment section better than the Star’s. Plus their server is much better, it never freezes up.
Any chance Gannett has already worked out a deal on the JOA with the Justice Department before the Bush Administration leaves office? Gannett is bound to cut a better deal now than after Jan. 20. That also may answer some of the timing on this.
I know Territorial Newspapers has held up well during these tough times. Is there talk of Wick Communications making a bid?
— Is there talk of Wick Communications making a bid?
I’m sure it is boinking around within some pointy little heads but
might I suggest the UA School of Journalism purchase the pub and populate it with interns/grads/faculty from the j.school/biz school etc.
Could be a bee-you-tif-el thing…
I do not think Wick would be interested, Arek. The problem with ANY newspaper company reaching out to buy the Citizen–and Wick’s in far better shape than most–is that all of us newspapers are really, really hurting right now. That’s why I don’t think Gannett’s in too big of a hurry to snap up the Star, Red Star–Gannett would LIKE to, I am sure, but cash flow is rough.
The Citizen has about as much value as another Gannett Arizona property that died last year, Channel 2 in Flagstaff. In other words, it is already dead.
Rick says: “Does either the Citizen or the Star have and RSS or Atom feed? No.”
Every single section has it’s own RSS feed – see that RSS button in the url bar? We’ve got 160 different RSS feeds.
Thanks for the props on the comments, Edge.
As to the suggestions that someone else might actually buy the Citizen – the newspaper’s not actually for sale. Gannett’s selling “certain assets.” Without a JOA situation, there’s no physical plant, no advertising dep’t, no marketing, nothing but a name and an archive dating back to 1870.
They don’t want to sell it – they’re legally-bound to make a good faith effort. They’ll kill us, and, when Lee can’t come up with $300 million in March, swoop in on the Star.
I asked Wick CEO John Mathew if Wick was interested in the Citizen, and his answer was: “Wick is not a prospect for the Citizen.” So, now you know.
ahhh but is the citizen a prospect for wick?
tis the crux of the biscuit me thinks.
http://www.mediamergers.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewProperties&cat=2
“Red Star–Gannett would LIKE to, I am sure, but cash flow is rough.”
Red Star is pleased that Editor Jimmy Boegle is beginning to grasp and present that things like the TNI JOA, like any contract, have a market value. The TNI JOA market value is zilch in the current climate. In no way can the the JOA save The Tucson Citizen. It’s a goner. ADS will hang on but their Amari-inspired bloat(Bolton, Kornmiller, Steller, others: the entourage…drill their website) will get cut in order to survive and be owned by someone/something, possibly Gannett, when the time is right but not by Wick.
I’m surprised it’s taken Gannett this long to kill the Citizen. The JOA remains in effect until 2015, during which time Gannett can still suck its share of the profits (while still pumping money into TNI, the go-between entity that owns the printing press, supervises the advertising reps, negotiates health insurance coverage, etc.). I don’t think the loss of advertising in the Citizen will hurt much, especially compared to the savings of not putting out an actual news “product,” as the Media Watch columnist annoyingly calls newspapers and radio/TV news shows. Greed-driven Gannett could have killed the Citizen years ago and had even more time to gulp down profits without contributing anything meaningful to the local news environment.