Tag: Media

Mar 6

2022

Monday Morning Read

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Editor’s note: This post is pulled from WeeklyPost, an email newsletter written by Jim Heaney and published Sunday mornings. It recaps our coverage of the previous week and highlights other local, state and national stories that Heaney finds of interest, along with a bit of commentary. If you don’t already subscribe — for free — you can do so at this link.  A story broke late last week that said the Bills stadium deal being struck is going to cost taxpayers over $1 billion. According to Sports Business Journal, taxpayers would cover $850 million of the project’s $1.4 billion price tag,[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Feb 23

2022

Changes afoot at WGRZ

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Big doings this week at WGRZ. Tuesday came the announcement that the station’s parent company, TEGNA, has been sold, pending approval by shareholders and the FCC. The buyer, Standard General, a hedge fund, presently owns just a handful of television stations; TEGNA consists of 64 stations, three of which will be sold as part of the transaction. TEGNA, NextStar and Sinclair, are considered the “Big Three” of television chains.  Standard General is presently TEGNA’s largest shareholder. Ownership of the stations will go private when the transaction is finalized, which is expected in the second half of this year. The Manhattan-based[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Feb 7

2022

The latest news on The Buffalo News

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Here’s the latest on the tussle over the ownership of the chain that owns The Buffalo News: To recap, Alden Global Capital made a bid late last year to purchase Lee Enterprises, whose newspaper holdings include The News. Lee has resisted in a series of maneuvers and the back-and-forth between the companies has gotten quite nasty.  The latest salvo came last week in the release of the chain’s quarterly financial report in which it described its media holdings as “the fastest growing digital subscription platform in local media.” Net profits were $13.2 million. All is good, according to Lee. Alden[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Dec 1

2021

Darth Vader is eyeing The Buffalo News

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The past decade have been tough times for The Buffalo News.  Declining circulation. Smaller profits. Deep cuts in the newsroom staff, resulting in less local news coverage. Things may soon become much more difficult. Alden Global Capital, regarded as the Darth Vader of newspaper chains, has made an offer to buy Lee Enterprises, whose holdings include The News. Alden announced its intentions last week and Lee responded as you would expect to what is clearly a hostile takeover attempt. No matter, the vultures are circling. Chains in general are bad for daily newspapers. Alden is the worst of them. “Every[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jul 5

2020

News outlets struggling to varying degrees

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The state of local news media in Western New York was in a precarious position before anyone heard of COVID-19. Now that the virus has wreaked its havoc on both public health and the economy, the situation is that much more concerning. The problems of The Buffalo News have been well documented previously in this column: smaller staff, less news coverage, shrinking circulation, much thinner profit margins, now in the hands of a chain carrying more than a half-billion-dollars of debt. Yet, The News continues to make money – or was, prior to the pandemic – and puts out a[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Apr 1

2020

Heaney talks News downsizing on WBFO

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Jim Heaney has detailed the furloughs and layoffs announced by The Buffalo News on Tuesday. He discussed the impact, along with the obstinance of Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz in dealing with the press during the COVID-19 crisis, with Jay Moran on WBFO. Give a listen.  

Posted 5 years ago

Mar 31

2020

Buffalo News downsizing comes quick

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Well, that didn’t take long. Lee Enterprises took ownership of The Buffalo News just a couple of weeks ago and wham — the paper on Tuesday announced furloughs and layoffs. To be fair, the loss of advertising due to fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic was no doubt the driving force behind the decision, which I’m told was made at corporate headquarters in Davenport, Iowa, rather than here in Buffalo. But let’s face it, The News was going to have to act sooner rather than later due to the loss of advertising revenue, which is just one of many challenges the[...]

Posted 5 years ago

Jan 30

2020

Buffalo News: Is Darth Vader lurking?

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An investment firm with a reputation of buying and gutting newspapers has just bought a stake in Lee Enterprises, which is purchasing The Buffalo News in a deal scheduled to close in March. What’s more, the firm, MNG Enterprises, is reportedly trying to engineer discussions about a mega-merger of newspaper chains, including Lee, Tribune Publishing, and possibly the McClatchy Co. In my column Wednesday, I said Lee’s purchase of The News was bad news that could have been worse. If MNG Enterprises, doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, gets its hands on The News through Lee, well,[...]

Posted 5 years ago
Investigative Post