Gazette Moving Printing to Gannett
The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) is stopping newspaper printing operations at its Color Web Printers and moving printing to Gannett Publishing Services in Des Moines in August, the paper reported. The closing of the newspaper printing operation impacts 34 full-time and eight part-time employees, says the paper. Affected employees will get outplacement and other transition assistance, says the paper.
“This was a very difficult decision, because it affects our fellow employee-owners, many of whom are longtime employees,” Folience CEO Daniel Goldstein told the paper. “But the changing economics and consolidation of the print industry necessitates this.” Folience is the parent company of The Gazette and Color Web Printers in Cedar Rapids, the Southeast Iowa Union in Washington, Life Line Emergency Vehicles in Sumner, and Cimarron Trailers in Chickasha, Oklahoma. The company plans to sell its Goss printing press and lease or sell the facility.
Post: Alden Considering Chapter 11 for New York Daily News
Alden Global Capital is considering a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for the New York Daily News, The New York Post reports, citing a source with knowledge of the situation. An Alden spokesman characterized that as an unsubstantiated rumor, says the Post. “This is entirely false and clearly your source knows that by making up lies under cloak of anonymity,” the spokesman said. In May, Alden purchased the Daily News and other properties owned by Tribune Publishing. The Daily News was broken off from the rest and put into a separate entity.
USA Today Goes to Subscriber Model
USA Today has launched a subscriber model, the paper announced July 7. Much of the content on USA Today will still be free, says the Gannett-owned paper. A selection of stories each day will be marked “subscriber only.” “These will be exclusive investigations, sophisticated visual explainers, thought-provoking takes on the news and immersive storytelling,” says the paper. Monthly around 90 million unique visitors come to USA Today’s digital platforms, says the paper. The paper is the last major national daily in the U.S. to go to a paid model, says NYT. Gannett has some 250 daily papers, which have already gone over to paid models, says the NYT.
Former News & Record Building on Market
The erstwhile home of the News & Record (Greensboro, North Carolina) is listed for sale. Chicago-based real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield listed the property on July 1 for nearly $11 million, says the paper. The 6.65-acre property covers most of the downtown block of 200 East Market St. The paper says there had been a buyer under contract to buy the building some years ago, but now the facility is back on the market. BH Media, which sold its newspapers to Lee Enterprises in 2020, owns the building, which is vacant as the paper has moved.
Key West Citizen Launches Happy Hour Guide
The Key West Citizen, part of the Adams Publishing Group, has launched an online happy hour guide with help from tech partners Wehaa. The happy hour guide is a directory of bars and restaurants in Key West and includes customized components, says a press release from Wehaa. Wehaa worked with the team at the Key West Citizen to create an online solution the dynamically shows current happy hours at the top of the directory. Users can search by the following preset time categories: all day, morning, afternoon, evening and late night. The Key West Citizen also launched a dining guide several months ago. It was part of rollout between Adams Publishing and Wehaa to help papers provide a list of local restaurants that were open during the lockdowns. Wehaa has developed several APG markets with online guides that show who is open, delivering and doing curbside pickup. The dining guide also synched up each restaurant with deliveries services like Grub Hub and Uber Eats.
News Corp Ends Knewz
News Corp has shut down aggregation site Knewz. The site was aimed at being an alternative to Google News and other aggregators and providers. This last spring News Corp made a deal with Google to license content. Facebook also made a deal with News Corp. “We started Knewz as an experiment in news aggregation because we wanted to gather a diverse range of quality journalism, to highlight all sides of every story and to protect and project provenance. We certainly had provenance, but not profits, and so we bid Knewz farewell. Thank you to the millions of Knewz users who saw the value of the service and supported our mission,” says a statement at the site. The project served as a proving ground for editorial, aggregation and mobile app software, said a further statement from News Corp. Verge and The Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp, have more on the closure.
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