The merger of Gannett, the parent company of USA Today, Pensacola News Journal and more than a 100 other dailies, and GateHouse Media was completed Tuesday afternoon.
The new chain will own one in five daily newspapers in the United States—-more than 260 dailies.
Michael E. Reed, the New Media chief executive since 2006, will lead the combined company. He told the New York Times that while he believes the new entity will have an annual savings of $300 million, the bulk of it “is not going to come from editorial.â€
Good news for newsrooms.
The new entity will control newspapers across the Panhandle to Jacksonville: PNJ, SR Press Gazette, Daily News, Destin Log, Crestview News Bulletin, Holmes County Times Advertiser, Walton Sun, Panama City News Herald, The Times of Apalachicola, Washington County News, Tallahassee Democrat, St. Augustine Record and Jacksonville’s Florida Times-Union.
Other Florida publications include Daily Commercial (Leesburg), Daytona Beach News-Journal, Florida Today, Gainesville Guardian, Indian River Press Journal (Vero Beach), Naples Daily News, News Chief (Winter Haven), Ocala Star Banner, Palm Beach Daily News, South Lake Press (Clermont), TCPalm (Treasure Coast Newspapers), The Gainesville Sun, The Ledger (Lakeland), Fort Myers News-Press, Palm Beach Post and St. Lucie News-Tribune.