Gannett, MediaNews Re-Organize Partnership Involving 12 Papers

Posted Saturday, December 3, 2005 12:00 am

By: A partnership between MediaNews Group Inc. and Gannett Co. will give the Denver-based MediaNews control over five newspapers in Pennsylvania, six in New Mexico and the El Paso Times in Texas.

The Pennsylvania papers involved are the Public Opinion in Chambersburg, a Gannett paper; as well as the York Daily Record and York Sunday News, the Lebanon Daily News and the Evening Sun of Hanover, all MediaNews publications.

Both companies will be represented on the partnership's board, but MediaNews will be the managing partner. MediaNews president Joseph J. Lodovic IV said the company would have a 59.5 percent financial stake in the partnership and Gannett would have a 40.5 percent stake.

The agreement expands a 2003 deal between the companies involving Gannett's El Paso Times and MediaNews' New Mexico papers: the Alamogordo Daily News, the Carlsbad Current-Argus, The Deming Headlight, The Daily Times in Farmington, the Las Cruces Sun-News and the Silver City Sun-News.

The Pennsylvania papers and the papers in Texas and New Mexico will be run as separate regional groups of the partnership, Lodovic said.

Under the 2003 partnership, MediaNews had a 33.8 percent stake and Gannett, with a 66.2 percent share, controlled day-to-day operations.

Lodovic said the Public Opinion needs a new press, and MediaNews expects to provide that press capacity at one of its Pennsylvania papers.

Gannett and MediaNews also are partners in the Detroit Newspapers Partnership, and part of the California Newspapers Partnership with Stephens Media Group of Little Rock, Ark.

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Gannett, MediaNews Re-Organize Partnership Involving 12 Papers

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