From Capital New York:Capital has learned that the global publishing conglomerate, which also owns The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, has issued a prospectus to potential buyers of its Community Newspaper Group, a stable that includes titles like The Brooklyn Paper, the Brooklyn Courier, and the Times Ledger.
The decision to sell CNG indicates that News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his lieutenants are continuing to shed assets while refocusing on core properties.
In 2006, the company bought two newspaper chains in Queens and Brooklyn, giving it a foothold in the outer boroughs, where the Daily News has historically trumped News Corp's Post in terms of penetration. In 2010, it added to that portfolio by purchasing The Brooklyn Paper, a well-respected broadsheet that's seen as the gem of the bunch. The entire stable was consolidated into the 11 community weeklies that now make up CNG, which has its headquarters in downtown Brooklyn's MetroTech Center.
As with all local papers, the CNG titles have seen a precipitous drop in classified advertising over the past 10 years, and circulation, which stands at a combined 250,000, according to the company, has declined as well, according to sources familiar with the business. Our sources could not confirm whether the operation is still profitable.
13 comments:
Ink on paper is old AND EXPENSIVE technology.
The fabled John Henry knew the price of trying to beat the new steam drill by driving steel with a hammer. He died at the end of the contest...beat by the drill!
Traditional newspapers are about to become history.
ANYONE who invests in antique media is a fool, and Murdoch is no fool.
Dispose of dead wood and buy up streaming media outlets. That's the future.
Good luck in trying to find a buyer for a paper that's bleeding money.
ALL the news and advertising will soon be on electronic media!
Who will buy a losing proposition. Editor Roz, had better find herself a new job, and quick!
Way too many local newspapers in Queens. And they all carry the SAME stories. The elderly population is the only one reading them.
Good luck in trying to find a buyer for a paper that's bleeding money.
Unless they accept whore ads.
I always see piles of Queens Ledger lying around days after they have been put out. No one is reading them. Print media? It's over.
That politcal rag sold out years ago. Who are they kidding?
Just a couple points and a couple questions:
If you think all the Queens papers run all the same stories, you're simply not reading them.
Thinking there are too many newspapers is rather anti-American. You may prefer fewer sources of information, but most people don't.
The Times Ledger and The Queens Ledger are two totally different things, with no connection whatsoever.
How do you know who reads the papers? Can you share the source of your data?
Who exactly did the Times Ledger sell out to? The GOP in Queens is nearly non-existent, and Murdoch is no liberal Democrat.
Traditional newspapers are always just about to become history, just as Jamaica is always just about to become a destination. We'll see.
My favorite Queens community paper is Maureen Walthers' Times Newsweekly: guts and gore galore. Reminds me of the old National Enquirer before Gene Pope cleaned it up. One car wreck after the other. I can't stop rubber-necking. If it bleeds, it leads.
PS Tony Barsamian of the Gazette. Please, please, puu-leeze redesign your front page. It looks like a piece of crap, for years now. Spend some goddam money to get it re-done. And the printer you're using doesn't correctly ink the photos you're printing. You too Sanchez, the Ledger sucks. It's a printing nightmare. The best all around designed papers are the editions put out by the Chronicle. And, believe it or not, Nussbaum's rags-the Tribune and Press -come in second. Vicki of the Courier? She stinks as well. I'm sick of those interminable nail and beauty parlor and hair salon ads. And telling in your column about visiting the grandkids in Texas - who gives a shit!?!?
"The elderly population is the only one reading"
Very true, its very sad I remember when it was "The Ridgewood Times"
They could do an online version but that also doesnt make $$.
A fellow had a cool bushwickBK
blog a couple years ago It was quite amusing to read but it couldnt make $$.
There is also a great "dogshit blog" from someone named Heather in Greenpoint.
I forgot the name & link my last read said "ShitTits" or something.
Corporations should be banned from owning more then 1 media outlet per city however Bill Clinton deregulated them with his corrupt "Telecommunications Act of 1996"
Now you can drive New York to California and hear the same scripted news & information on the radio TV, Cable and print.
This was once called Monopoly and illegal
At one time the Times Ledger had some really good reporters working there. These good guys have long left--not to be replaced by anyone who could match their skills.
A lot of up and coming investigative reporters (if there are any left out there) have moved on to better prospects.
I notice that the former Bayside oriented Queens Courier seems to be focusing more and more on Long island City these days. They've been distributing their paper all over LIC--which was not the case before.
Have advertising revenues dwindled in Bayside compared to the rising ones in LIC?
From Guttenberg to the internet--one giant leap in communication!
We have met the future. The main use of paper will be toilet paper. Uh, on second thought, maybe not even there.
Maybe Savemart can buy it all over again
Turn it back into SaveMart!!!
If CNG's Times Ledger is worse than (or even comparable to) its Brooklyn Daily, you have my deepest sympathy.
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