Nixes buying McClatchy
The Knight Foundation decided not to make a bid for the collapsing
McClatchy newspapers. Knight Foundation, created by John S. Knight, the best
newspaper owner in American history, and JSK's brother James Knight, specializes in grants
and investments, not operating a business.
The scary thing about the McClatchy situation is that means hedge
funds will own about 40% of daily newspaper ownership.
Unlike JSK, who wanted
to make a profit but not at the expense of good journalism that JSK and Thomas
Jefferson embraced, hedge funds are in it to make a profit. Period.
Even if
means buying, cannibalizing and reducing newspaper staffs to zombie (smaller
than skeleton) size.
Fortress Investment Group swallowed up Gannett/Gatehouse, Alden did
the same whale imitation with MNG Enterprises and Chatham probably will gobble
up what's left of McClatchy.
That’s not good for the public’s right to know. Corrupt politicians
and corporations have a field day when there’s no viable media to keep the fox
from guarding the henhouse.
McClatchy paid $6.5 million in 2006 to buy Knight Ridder
Newspapers, then America’s 2nd largest newspaper group. Worse timing
in history.
Newspapers were on the verge of a freefall. McClatchy took a decade
staggering toward its inevitable bankruptcy.
The court ordered McClatchy to choose a rescuer by Wednesday, July 8.
Check out the article by the Nieman Lab, which benefits from Knight
Foundation money, at
No comments:
Post a Comment