Billionaires Buying Bulletins and other Newspaper Consolidation
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Florida billionaire David Hoffmann aims to create the second-largest newspaper group in America
A Wall Street Journal excerpt via Editor & Publisher:
A Florida billionaire with a fondness for local news is looking to build a newspaper giant by potentially scooping up publishers Lee Enterprises and DallasNews.
David Hoffmann, who last month disclosed a 5.2% stake in Lee Enterprises, has raised that interest to 8.7%, making him the Davenport, Iowa, company’s second-largest shareholder.
Hoffmann also disclosed a new 5% stake in DallasNews, making him one of the Dallas Morning News publisher’s biggest investors.
In an interview Friday, Hoffmann said he aims to create the second-largest newspaper group in America behind Gannett, and that a combination of his Hoffmann Media Group, Lee Enterprises and DallasNews would do just that.
David Hoffman, who owns a small media group of Florida newspapers with a branch in Mackimac MI and recently bought The Napa Valley (CA) Register, has plans to become the next newspaper baron.
The Hoffman Family of Companies issued its own press announcement:
Lee Enterprises, the fourth-largest newspaper company in the U.S., operates in 26 states with 77 newspapers and over 350 weekly and specialty publications serving 73 markets nationwide. A merger between Hoffmann Media Group and Lee Enterprises would position the combined company as the third-largest newspaper entity in the country.
“HF Companies will continue to invest in Lee Enterprises. We are optimistic about the future of the newspaper industry and believe in the importance of strong, local papers that are an integral part of the fabric of the communities they serve,” said David Hoffmann, Chairman of Hoffmann Family of Companies.
From D Magazine out of Dallas:
His Hoffmann Family of Companies announced today that it has “acquired a significant stake” in the publicly traded parent company of the Dallas Morning News, which follows a $4 million stock purchase of the Iowa newspaper company Lee Enterprises.
That gave Hoffmann a 5.2 percent stake in Lee, which owns the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Buffalo News, and more than 70 other newspapers in 26 states. The press release about its DallasNews move doesn’t say how many shares Hoffmann purchased, but it claims the company is now one of its “top shareholders.” It also scooped up another 1 percent of Lee shares, making it the second-largest shareholder.
Here’s Hoffmann’s statement about the News purchase: “Our group is impressed with the strategic vision of the management teams at both DallasNews Corp. and Lee Enterprises. In our team’s assessment, both companies are successfully transitioning to sustainable digital business models while reducing exposure to their legacy print operations.
From St. Louis Magazine (David Hoffman was born and raised in Missouri and has extensive holdings there):
Earlier this week, David Hoffmann, chairman of the Hoffmann Family of Companies, floated the idea of the multi-billion dollar firm buying the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Hoffmann currently has a 5 percent stake in Lee Enterprises, the Post’s parent company, and wants to increase those holdings. Last month Hoffmann bought three small Lee-owned publications, The Napa Valley Register, St. Helena Star, and Inside Napa Valley magazine. The idea of buying the Post itself, floated Tuesday in the pages of the St. Louis Business Journal, would be a big change for the city’s paper of record—though what that change would look like is unclear.
It begs the question of what Hoffmann owning the Post-Dispatch, the state’s biggest paper, would portend for its coverage of Hoffmann.
From Redline comes a graph showing the largest media group in 2022:
Redline has some recent statistics for the newspaper industry and about the above chart:
- As of 2022, Gannett is the largest newspaper owner in the United States with a total of 487 papers owned. The company owned fewer papers in 2022 than in 2020 (613 papers owned).
- About 3 privately owned regional chains started owning newspapers in 2022. These are CherryRoad Media of New Jersey, Paxton Media, and Ogden Newspapers. These chains are the largest regional newspaper owners.
- About 2/3 of the 90 papers sold by Gannett were bought by CherryRoad Media and Paxton Media. CherryRoad Media owns 71 papers in 10 Midwestern states, while Paxton Media owns 120 papers in 10 Southern and Midwestern States.
Sine the Gatehouse/Gannett merger in 2019 Gannett has been divesting itself of many small dailies and weeklies. Adams Publishing is aggressively accumulating newspapers of varying sizes.
Meanwhile, earlier this year. in the Pacific Northwest the Carpenter Media Group was making their play:
Portland’s largest newspaper group sells to Mississippi-based company:
Pamplin Media, the largest newspaper group in the Portland metro area, announced Monday it has sold its operations to Carpenter Media Group.
Pamplin owns more than two dozen Oregon publications and websites, including the the Portland Tribune. The media organization primarily operates in the suburban and exurban areas around Portland, though it also runs newspapers in Central Oregon.
The Tribune reports that owner Robert Pamplin sold the company to the Mississippi-based Carpenter Media Group [emphasis added], but did not disclose the sales price. The deal was effective on June 1st.
and
The largest network of community newspapers in Washington state has been sold to new owners, following tough financial times.
If you get a local newspaper in Western Washington, chances are is it operated by Sound Publishing. Sound owns more than 40 newspapers across the state, as well as three publications in Alaska. In 2013, it purchased the Seattle Weekly, which has since been operated as an online-only news site. The largest newspaper in its collection is The Everett Herald.
Sound Publishing’s parent company, Black Press, has been sold to a partnership between investment groups, as well as Alabama-based Carpenter Media Group [emphasis added].
Good News and Bad News in the Medill (School of Journalism) State of Local News report from October 2024:
The number of local news deserts expanded in the U.S. this year with 127 newspapers shuttering, leaving nearly 55 million Americans with limited to no access to local news, according to the Medill State of Local News Report 2024 released today.
Medill researchers also discovered some reasons for optimism in their annual study of local news outlets: There’s been a net increase of more than 80 stand-alone local digital news sites in the past year.
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