US: local papers attractive buys

Posted by John Burke on May 17, 2006 at 12:33 PM

Is the newspaper industry really in trouble? When you move past the big metros and study their smaller cousins, it doesn't seem so. An $400 million investment deal for 124 newspapers in the Boston area shows that the Little Guy appeals to investors and more importantly, to its community. And the Big Boys are trying to catch up.

As we've said on this blog for some time, the days of the newspaper being everything to everybody are fading fast. As Jeff Jarvis says, "Small is the new big," and it looks like niche and local could be the "new big investment."

GateHouse Media, bought last year by an investment group, is extending its local newspaper market holdings, an industry which is not necessarily growing, but is holding fairly steady. So why would a finance group purchase a tool of journalism?

"A suburban paper can deliver a highly targeted audience," said Peter Conti Jr. of media research company Borrell Associates. Highly targeted audiences are pegged to be the audience of the future as the Internet allows people to get what they want when they want it. Local newspapers can become "indispensable" to their communities.

Realizing this, the Boston Globe is boosting its own suburban sections to get more local. But is that the role that consumers want a metro paper to play? Will they vie for a big paper trying to go local or would they prefer reading news from the grassroots, from the people who live in the same community with them?

Source: boston.com

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