The number of employees soon to be cut at the No. 1 U.S. newspaper chain is about the same number as the No. 2 chain has in total. But newsrooms should mostly be spared — for now.
What will the largest local news company need to do and be to be successful in the 2020s? Neither Gannett nor Gatehouse has offered any big vision of what that is, or could be, even fueled by new money.
The merger of the United States’ No. 1 and No. 2 newspaper chains will likely spark a new wave of consolidation among its smaller competitors. But will the potential cost savings be eaten up by debt payments to financiers?
Websites had two years to get ready for the GDPR. But rather than comply, about a third of the 100 largest U.S. newspapers have instead chosen to block European visitors to their sites.
“We’re never going to beat Google and Facebook in advertising. Let’s focus on what we can beat them at, and that’s being local and selling business owners something that they need terribly.”
Even without the L.A. Times, it still controls a lot of important newspapers. Will it sell them to Gannett, Murdoch, local individuals in each city — or to yet another private equity firm looking to strip papers for parts?
The company — a giant bet on acquisition, consolidation, and cost-cutting — now owns more than 1 out of 10 American daily newspapers. What it plans to do with them remains unclear.
Does he really want to take on becoming the great consolidator of the American press, conquering once-mighty Gannett? Or will he exit the field — richer, but his ambitions humbled?
Doctor, Ken. "Newsonomics: Softbank, Fortress, Trump – and the real story of Gatehouse’s boundless ambition." Nieman Journalism Lab. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, 23 Feb. 2017. Web. 27 Mar. 2023.
APA
Doctor, K. (2017, Feb. 23). Newsonomics: Softbank, Fortress, Trump – and the real story of Gatehouse’s boundless ambition. Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved March 27, 2023, from https://www.niemanlab.org/2017/02/newsonomics-softbank-fortress-trump-and-the-real-story-of-gatehouses-boundless-ambition/
Chicago
Doctor, Ken. "Newsonomics: Softbank, Fortress, Trump – and the real story of Gatehouse’s boundless ambition." Nieman Journalism Lab. Last modified February 23, 2017. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://www.niemanlab.org/2017/02/newsonomics-softbank-fortress-trump-and-the-real-story-of-gatehouses-boundless-ambition/.
Wikipedia
{{cite web
| url = https://www.niemanlab.org/2017/02/newsonomics-softbank-fortress-trump-and-the-real-story-of-gatehouses-boundless-ambition/
| title = Newsonomics: Softbank, Fortress, Trump – and the real story of Gatehouse’s boundless ambition
| last = Doctor
| first = Ken
| work = [[Nieman Journalism Lab]]
| date = 23 February 2017
| accessdate = 27 March 2023
| ref = {{harvid|Doctor|2017}}
}}
