Beacon Journal To Be Bought And Sold

The parent company of the Akron Beacon Journal, Knight Ridder, is being sold to California-based McClatchy, in a deal that's reportedly worth $4.5 billion in cash and stock.

But that doesn't end the uncertainty for the Beacon. The deal only means - as the newspaper itself reports - that the Beacon and 11 other Knight Ridder papers are going to be changing hands again...as McClatchy won't hang onto those newspapers. The group being sold off again includes not only the Beacon, but the San Jose Mercury News, and both daily newspapers in Philadelphia. McClatchy is also selling off the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota, which competes with its own Star-Tribune in Minneapolis.

McClatchy says it wants to hang onto KR papers in "high-growth areas", which most certainly led to the company putting the newspaper which started the entire company into the "re-sale bin". It's not known if the 12 KR papers being let loose would be sold individually or as a group. McClatchy officials say they've already gotten some interest in those newspapers.

Again, we don't normally delve into covering the print media here, but this could have a long-term impact on the local media market as a whole...