Thursday, September 19, 2013

newspapers on sale

The buying of the Washington Post by Jeff Bezos is just one stage of the lenghty process of property transfers of newspapers and magazines in most Western countries.

In the US, the Tribune company is trying to get rid at a bargain price of its former flagship newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times has just sold the Boston Globe with a heavy loss. The Gray Lady itself could one day be on the market in spite of the denials of the Schultzberger family. Remember what the Graham said two years ago?

In the UK there is no guarantee that the Murdoch family will keep for ever the Times and the Sun. Their ambitions are obviously turned towards movies and television, so much more profitable.

In France it is the same pattern. Neither Hersant, nor Tapie are to keep for ever their ailing dialies, Nice Matin and la Provence. Sud Ouest will sooner or later be transfered to some regional investor willing to trade losse for image. It seems obvious too that the Flemish group Roularta is losing patience with its French investments, Express, Etudiant, Point de Vue. After tough social plans, they could be put on the market. Same story with Amaury familyIt is of two minds about a partial or a total sale of a fairly prosperous group that suffers from its press branch, Equipe and Parisien.

What seems to happen is that a great part of the press goes to businessmen, tycoons looking for a good image but not relly interested by the job. The tragedy of the press is that it does not produce adventurers any more. They are all trying their luck in the digital world.