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SUNNY Temp: 55 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Thursday, November 21, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend October 2, 2002 Owner of Mail Tribune buys Ashland newspaper The papers will be run separately but will share some operations, including news content By GREG STILES Mail Tribune Jackson County’s two daily newspapers now share the same parent company. Ottaway Newspapers Inc., owner of the Mail Tribune, announced on Tuesday its acquisition of the 5,100-circulation Ashland Daily Tidings from Lee Enterprises Inc. Ottaway is the community-newspapers arm of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal. Ottaway also purchased the Nickel from Lee Enterprises. The Nickel is a classified-advertising publication in Medford with weekly distribution of 30,000. Mail Tribune publisher Grady Singletary also will be publisher of the Daily Tidings and the Nickel. The Mail Tribune’s combined average paid circulation is 31,049. "Both the Daily Tidings and Nickel will continue to run independently and separately," Singletary said Tuesday. "We sensed the opportunity to take advantage of the synergies that exist between the Mail Tribune and Daily Tidings that will improve both publications. In the case of the Nickel, there will be no melding of staff or operations." Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but an industry observer pegged the price near $7 million. Ottaway now publishes 13 daily and more than a dozen weekly newspapers in 10 states. Following the sale, Lee Enterprises owns 38 daily newspapers and a joint interest in six others. John Wilcox, executive vice president of Ottaway, said the acquisitions are part of its strategy of improving earnings growth in the Ottaway portfolio of daily and weekly newspapers and special advertising publications. "We’re targeting newspapers with a circulation of 15,000 to 100,000," Wilcox said. "Ashland falls below that, but because of its proximity and being in a contiguous market with Medford, we made an allowance for that." Ottaway sold seven newspapers earlier this year after buying a 3,000-circulation newspaper in Danville, Pa., last November. Danville, like Ashland, was near another larger Ottaway newspaper. John Morton, head of Morton Research, a media consulting firm in Silver Spring, Md., said newspapers such as the Daily Tidings — sharing a market with another daily and lacking a Sunday edition — would generally sell for between $1,100 and $1,200 per subscriber. The addition of the Nickel and the Daily Tidings’ commercial printing operations would push that figure beyond $1,300 to a purchase price of around $7 million. Singletary said that the newspapers will share some news content to minimize sending two reporters to cover the same theatrical, sports and government events. "From an advertising perspective, we realize Ashland is a very viable market," Singletary said. "We’ll look at packaging products and making them available to advertisers." He said business office services for the Daily Tidings and Nickel — such as payroll, billing and accounts payable previously supplied by Lee’s regional corporate offices in Albany — will be moved to the Mail Tribune in Medford. "The Ashland Daily Tidings does a quality job of serving that community and we wish to continue and support that effort," said Singletary, who plans to spend two days a week in the Ashland office. The Ashland Daily Tidings first appeared on the morning of June 17, 1876, and has gone through a long list of owners. In 1980, Capital Cities-ABC bought the newspaper, selling it to Disney in 1996. Lee Enterprises acquired the daily in 1999. Former publisher Mike Thorpe left in May. The sale had been rumored for several months as negotiations picked up steam in midsummer. Daily Tidings Editor Larry Berteau said Tuesday’s announcement brought a sense of closure to a lengthy period of uncertainty. "There’s been a lot of anxiety," Berteau said. "The ugly witch rumor has been floating around and the angel of fact never reared its head until an hour ago (2:30 p.m., when Ottaway representatives met with the Daily Tidings staff). "I think of it as a terrific opportunity for both papers." Tidings advertising director Rob Merriman said he was encouraged that Ottaway recognizes the need for separate identities and mission. "It won’t be so much trying to blend two flavors into vanilla," Merriman said. "We have a purpose specific to this community. We don’t have any intention otherwise." Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a newspaper merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, N.M., represented Lee Enterprises Inc. in the transaction. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S