Singleton Tours Knight Ridder's Philadelphia Papers

By: E&P Staff William Dean Singleton, a potential buyer of Knight Ridder's Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News , toured the two newspapers' facilities on Thursday, the Inquirer revealed today.

Singleton, vice chairman and chief executive officer of MediaNews Group of Denver, spent at least two hours with Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. publisher Joseph Natoli, then looked at the company's Schuylkill Printing Plant.

He later told the paper's Joseph DiStefano that he had "always liked Philadelphia" and that he was visiting "most" of the Knight Ridder papers, but declined to comment on his plans. MediaNews has been mentioned as a buyer or a partner with Gannett and/or others in such a purchase.

Singleton, DiStefano wrote, "was accompanied on the visit by a delegation that included Norman Alpert, principal at Vestar Capital Partners in New York, a private-equity firm that has also expressed interest in the chain; and Gary L. Watson, longtime head of Gannett Co.'s newspaper division, until his resignation in December."

But what?s it like covering the rumors and reports surrounding the Knight Ridder deal?from the semi-inside? DiStefano told Kevin Sweeney at www.businessjournalism.org that he doesn?t get much more cooperation from the company than anyone else.

Back in November, he was advised by his publisher not to listen in on a conference call and since then ?has encountered further resistance,? as Sweeney puts it.

"It's a little weird to be calling our own bosses and bosses' bosses for comment, but they stonewall me just like many of the other companies on the beat," DiStefano said. "At one point, a company spokesman called to ask me why I was referring to our chain as the 'fourth-largest' when the company called itself the 'second-largest.'

"I explained that I had researched the question, and I knew that the chain was indeed No. 2 by daily circulation, but only No. 4 by revenues; the spokesman did not pursue the matter."

As for reader feedback, DiStefano told Sweeney that the general public is not expressing much opinion, but financial analysts have weighed in.

"On my own beat (financial institutions), there has been a lot of interested speculation as to what the papers are worth, who the likely buyers are and what new management might do differently," DiStefano said. "That's been useful to me in a general way, but I still don't know what's going to happen, or when."