Phillips Media Buying Five Gannett Papers
Phillips Media Group is buying five publications from Gannett. The transaction is scheduled to close Sept. 1. Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media M&A firm based in New Mexico, represented Gannett in the transaction. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The five publications include the Baxter Bulletin in Mountain Home, Arkansas, and four in Missouri: The Big Nickel in Joplin, the Rolla Daily News, the Kirksville Daily Express, and the NEMO Trader in La Plata. “We are excited to bring these publications into our group. We believe we have the expertise to effectively operate publications in these markets, putting out products that will be valued by the respective communities,” said Jim Holland, president of Phillips Media Group.
Phillips Media Group bought the Quincy Herald Whig (Illinois) and Hannibal Courier Post (Missouri) earlier this year. With the addition of these five papers from Gannett, the company publishes 17 publications in Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois. The company also operates Springfield, Missouri-based Nowata Printing Company.
Postal Rates Set to Rise Aug. 29th
Postal rates are set to increase Aug. 29. See information from USPS here. A number of organizations have been pushing back against the increases, as News & Tech recently reported.
Journalists at Gannett Papers in New Jersey Form Union
Journalists at the Asbury Park Press, the Courier News and the Home News Tribune (New Jersey) have formed a union with the NewsGuild, the journalists announced. https://appmcjguild.com/ They have formed a unit called APP-MCJ Guild.
Gannett owns the papers. Gannett has declined to voluntarily recognize the unit, says Poynter, which means that a vote in a National Labor Relations Board election will have to be held for union certification.
Mediahuis to Use CUE as Main Publishing Platform
European media group Mediahuis will drive its digital transformation with the publishing platform CUE from Stibo DX, says a press release from Stibo DX. Mediahuis is a multimedia company operating in four countries: Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Ireland. De Standaard, NRC Handelsblad, De Telegraaf, Irish Independent, the Belfast Telegraph and Luxemburger Wort are among Mediahuis brands.
CUE will be used as a centralized system to manage various websites and news apps. CUE is the multichannel and headless CMS.
“The media industry has been product-driven for ages, but now we are delivering a service instead of a product,” said Mediahuis CDO Peter Soetens. “And the service starts with the consumers’ needs. We are looking forward to bring our digital and multichannel publishing to another level with CUE.”
Mid-Atlantic Media Installs Layout-8000
Mid-Atlantic Media, a media company centered in the Baltimore-D.C. corridor and publisher of Baltimore’s Child, the Baltimore Jewish Times, Baltimore Style, Consumer’s Eye Magazine, Frederick’s Child, Home Services Magazine, MetroKids, Montgomery Magazine, Washington Family and Washington Jewish Week, has gone live with Layout-8000 from SCS.
The publisher had a short window to replace its previous system and SCS made the transition happen in three weeks, with a cloud-based deployment being a key element, says a press release from SCS.
“The ability to meet our customers’ scheduling needs has always been a point of pride for SCS,” said Phil Curtolo, SCS’s director of sales. “Having a cloud-based implementation of Layout-8000 makes continuing this tradition simpler than ever.”
STN Video Launches Article Recirculation Tool
STN Video’s platform now contains an AI-driven recirculation tool, giving publishers the ability to increase user engagement and monetization, says the company. The STN platform allows publishers to configure the experience to match a publisher’s preferences and strategy by keeping readers informed and on-page by delivering a clickable preview of trending articles across the publisher’s site. Publishers also generate revenue from video ads or drive subscriptions or e-commerce opportunities.
“Our delivery of this best-of-breed recirculation solution is just a part of our ongoing mission to empower publisher storytelling with fantastic content, encompassing the best technology, in a flexible manner that delivers an exceptional user experience,” said Matthew Watson, CEO of STN Video. Watson said more announcements from his company are upcoming.
New Press for Berkshire Eagle
New England Newspapers, home of the Berkshire Eagle, has bought a 32-page Goss SSC press for its Pittsfield, Massachusetts, facility from imPRESSions Worldwide (iW). iW will remove the existing 30-year-old Goss Urbanite and install, commission and provide training on the full-color, automated 2012 SSC Press.
The Berkshire Eagle has an announcement about the new press here, from Fred Rutberg, president and publisher of The Berkshire Eagle. The paper is documenting the press build with time-lapse photography and we will post it on its website.
The press will produce 32-page all-color tabloid newspapers and with three-wide assembly has the capability of producing 24-page broadsheet paper. In addition to running off newspaper dailies, the SSC press offers semi-commercial print fire power, allowing the company to expand its print capacity.
More News
- Revue is starting to test a feature that allows people to subscribe to a Revue newsletter directly from a Twitter profile. It’s available to all Revue creators immediately. To start, newsletters will show only for a test group on Twitter, said an Aug. 19 tweet from Revue.
- Rupert Murdoch has sold defunct online aggregator Knewz to Dylan Howard, The Daily Beast reported. News Corp had shut down Knewz in July. 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.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
News & Tech is the premier resource for insight, analysis and technology integration in newspaper, magazine, digital and hybrid operations and production. News & Tech is written by industry experts and read by publishers and executive decision-makers.
