News. Digital First Media (controlled by New York-based Alden Global Capital) is set to buy Gannett (publisher of USA Today and dozens of other newspapers including including The Arizona Republic, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and The Cincinnati Enquirer) after making a hostile $1.4bn bid for the company at a 23% premium to its then share price. If successful, this would be the largest acquisition so far for Digital First Media (publisher of some 200 newspapers including The Denver Post and The Orange County Register). Bloomberg says Alden asserts that “the future of newspapers lies in consolidation and the cost cuts that it enables” and that “the strategy of buying and cutting is exactly the one that Gannett pursued as it grew into the biggest newspaper owner in the country”. In its offer letter, revealing that it had bought a 7.5% stake in Gannett, Digital First accused the management of poor digital deal-making. Gannett was once the most voracious acquirer of US local papers; now “the hunter has become the hunted.” It all threatens to disrupt the auction for Gizmodo Media, where Gannett has been one of the few serious bidders. The Univision-owned Gizmodo has the eponymous tech website as well as the digitals Jezebel (gender, culture and politics) and Deadspin (sport). Gizmodo is thought most likely now to be bought by Bryan Goldberg, owner of Elite Daily, Bustle – and Gawker (once part of Gawker Media alongside Gizmodo). Insiders sniped that Univision had been hoping to get a good price from Gannett rather than a typically price-squeezed deal from Goldberg. Across the pond, insiders are asking what will happen to Gannett’s highly-regarded UK subsidiary, Newsquest Media? The £130m-revenue/ £21m-profit company publishes the Glasgow Herald and the UK’s oldest newspaper, the Berrow’s Journal, and has long been one of the country’s most successful regional publishers. Its 200 local news brands and magazines claim 30m online users and 6m print readers, and employ 1,800 people. Will Digital First Media want to be in the UK or will the burgeoning Reach Plc (formerly Trinity Mirror), the UK’s largest national and regional news group, want – and be permitted – to acquire all or some of it?
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Digital First swoops on USA Today owner
