York, Pa., Deal Includes Guaranteed Profit for Singleton Rival

By: Joe Strupp When MediaNews Group Inc. traded The York (Pa.) Dispatch for its crosstown rival York Daily Record, it effectively gave away the Dispatch by paying more than $30 million for the Daily Record, receiving no cash in return, and guaranteeing the Dispatch's new owners $2 million in annual profit.

"It's like when you buy a car," MediaNews Group CEO and Vice Chairman William Dean Singleton said about the sale. "You trade in your old car, plus cash."

Singleton's deal with Phil Buckner, who took over control of the afternoon Dispatch on May 5, also includes a $225,000 yearly "management fee" paid to the Dispatch owner, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from Monday. The two newspapers also restructured their 14-year-old joint operating agreement to end much earlier, in 2024, instead of the previously targeted 2090.

The JOA, which splits profits through a pre-set formula, is run by the MediaNews Group-controlled York Newspaper Co. It continues but now includes the guaranteed Dispatch profit share.

"Rather than having the Dispatch take a profit risk, they get a guaranteed profit and an assured amount of money to publish their newspaper," Singleton told E&P. "This takes them out of the risk business. We wanted to assure the Dispatch a future; we had owned the Dispatch for many years."

Buckner, who could not be reached for comment because he was out of the country, is a member of the family that runs Buckner News Alliance, which had owned the morning Daily Record. Buckner News sold the Daily Record to MediaNews Group for $38.3 million, according to the SEC filing. In exchange, Singleton effectively gave the afternoon Dispatch to Phil Buckner, along with the annual profit guarantee and the management fee.

As part of the sale, 19 editorial employees relocated from the Dispatch to the Daily Record, while Singleton retained ownership of the York Sunday News, the lone Sunday publication.

Under a JOA provision added in 1996, MediaNews had an option during 2004 to buy the Daily Record for a previously agreed-upon price of about $32 million.

If MediaNews did not choose to buy the paper during 2004, a second provision would have kicked in on Jan. 1, 2005. That option would have allowed Buckner to force MediaNews to buy the Daily Record at anytime between 2005 and 2007.

The Daily Record's Monday-Friday circulation is 46,554, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations report for the six months ending March 30, 2004. The Dispatch circulation was 37,279 for the same period and the York Sunday News circ was 93,249.

The publishing frequency of the papers did not change following the sale, which kept the Daily Record on a Monday through Saturday schedule, while the Dispatch continues to publish Monday through Friday.

The deal included the departure of Daily Record Editor and Publisher Dennis Hetzel, who turned over editing duties to Managing Editor James McClure, while Fred Uffelman, president of the York Newspaper Co., which runs the business operations of both papers under the JOA, became Daily Record publisher.

Deena Gross, editor of the Dispatch, retained her title. A new publisher for the Dispatch, for which Singleton had served as publisher, has not been announced.