Posted in Business

Gannett-Gatehouse merger talks continue

   July 23, 2019

By the first of next month, the daily newspapers from Pensacola to Tallahassee could be owned by one entity if Gannett, owner of the Pensacola News Journal and Tallahassee Democrat, merges with Gatehouse Media, owner of Fort Walton Beach Daily News and Panama City News Herald.

The Nieman Lab reports the combined company would own 265 daily titles —a total print circulation nearing 9 million readers. One of every six daily newspapers in America would be controlled by the new entity.

Gatehouse Media is expected to the controlling entity.

Nieman Lab’s Ken Doctor suspects the merger will lead to more regional news and less local coverage.

He wrote: “‘Local’ news is rapidly coming to mean ‘regional’ news. Readers in print and digital too often now get ‘local’ news out of places 50 miles away, just as long as the daily’s corporate parent also owns those news operations down the road. And I’d expect to see a lot more regionalization out of this merger.”

Check out Columbia Journalism Review.

Share:

Rules for Comments

Your comments are welcomed, but there are some rules to follow:

(1) Be Nice. No comments that slander another, no racism, no sexism, no personal attacks.

(2) No Harrassing Comments.

(3) No Libel. That’s saying something is not true about someone. Don’t do it.

(4) Keep it clean. Nothing vulgar, obscene, or sexually related. No profanity or obvious substitutions.

(5) I reserve the right to remove any comments that violate our rules or are inappropriate. I am not responsible for what is posted. Comments may not appear right away until they are approved by a moderator.

(6) Limit your comments to the subject in this story only, and limit comments to 1,500 characters or less. Do not post copyrighted material. Comments will not be added to stories that are over five days old.

(7) No posts may advertise a commercial business, political candidate, or political group. Links in a comment aren’t allowed.

8) Commenting too many times may result in your comments not being allowed. Readers will begin to ignore your views.

9) Email me if you believe a comment violates any of these rules, and it will be deleted.