Landmark Communications, which owns papers like the Virginian-Pilot, Roanoke Times and Style Weekly, could be up for sale:
The Web sites said the Batten family has hired advisers to sell its Norfolk-based Landmark Communications Inc.
An announcement about the decision is scheduled to be made today. The company could be sold in pieces, the sites said.
The privately-held media company also owns The Weather Channel, plus television stations in Nashville, Tenn., and Las Vegas
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If Jim Bacon and EMR buy it, they can stop compalining about mainstream media. All they eed is a few loyal investors.
RH
Omigod, this is an amazing development. A summer internship with the Virginian-Pilot launched my journalism career, and I later spent five years working for the Roanoke Times — two of which I sat next to Frank Batten Jr., who was earning his journalistic stripes covering the Bedford County Board of Supervisors at the time. Landmark is a fine organization, and the Battens have contributed immensely to the betterment of Virginia. I have nothing but admiration for them.
But the Battens are savvy, too. They have made far more money in cable TV and auto shopper publications than they ever did in newspapers. I’m guessing that Frank Jr. is taking an unsentimental view of the newspapers and would prefer to redeploy his family’s wealth to more lucrative areas.
It will be interesting to see who makes a play for the Roanoke and Norfolk properties. Media General, which owns newspapers in Richmond, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Danville, Bristol and Mansassas, might be able to extract some synergies — printing efficiencies, sharing of administrative overhead, pooling of editorial resources, Internet content creation and advertising sales — by adding Norfolk and Roanoke to its Virginia portfolio.
Verrrrry interesting indeed.
hmmmmm……didn’t the FCC just change some rules about cross-ownership of newspapers?
I think it is now possible for one company to basically “own” an entire media market…..TV, Radio, and Print.
Only in America, Baby!
Ugggh!
It would be a disaster if Media General ever got them. They are such a piss-poor, ethically-challenged outfit. Moreover, since their stock has sunk from $70 to below $20/share it’s doubtful they’d find the cash.
Let’s hope for someone good like McClatchy of California.
Local company Interactive Financial Marketing Group (IFMG) is owned by Landmark subsidiary Dominion Resources.
IFMG is home to carloan.com.
It will be interesting to see what happens to the Landmark pensioners and those of us who were expecting a little something from the Landmark pension plan. HA. I made a point of staying in Roanoke long enough to vest, and now that I’m within spitting distance of collecting the reduced benefit at 55, this news comes along. It wasn’t going to be much. Praise the Battens all you want, Jim, both of us had the good sense to go where we got paid more.
Oh well.
What does Adrian Monk say on TV? I’m not against change, I just don’t like to be around when it happens? Of all the things changing in this world, the slow death of the newspaper industry worries me most of all. “-30-” was the headline this week on the last Cincinnati Post. Broadcast and blogs and podcasts will never replace the contributions made to liberty by a free and unfettered press willing to comfort the afflicted and aflict the comfortable.
Was it Jefferson who said he’d rather have a newspaper without government than government without newspapers?
RH
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