In this Cone thread, veteran newspaperman Charles Womack speculates either Paxton or McClatchy will buy the N&R.
I speculated a while back that McClatchy would be the best bet, then felt like an idiot when they started hemorrhaging. Surely Womack knows more about these things than I do.
If you want to see what the N&R would look like under Paxton ownership, take a look at the High Point Enterprise. If you think things are bad now….
Update: More hemorrhaging: N&O cuts 52 jobs, 20 in the newsroom. Isaac Hunter’s Tavern says:
The worst part of it all is that it isn’t about whether McClatchy’s making money — it is. Just not enough of it. The company took on a huge debt load to buy Knight-Ridder (that’s when they acquired the Charlotte Observer) and it’s not paying it off fast enough to satisfy its lenders. So this isn’t even about profitability. It’s about a business deal that, at this point, looks pretty ugly. Here’s hoping time proves otherwise.
