Stephens family's Halifax buys Worcester paper, cuts staff




Halifax Media Group of Daytona Beach, Fla., has bought the

Worcester Telegram & Gazette

from John Henry. Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, acquired the

T&G

along with the

Boston Globe

from the New York Times Co. last year.

In December 2011, Halifax bought 16 other former New York Times Co. newspapers,

a

T&G

report noted.

In addition to its new acquisition, it owns 35 newspapers in five Southeastern states. The

T&G

is Halifax’s first acquisition in the Northeast, the article said.

Halifax was founded in 2010 by three private equity investment firms: Stephens Capital Partners, JAARSSS Media, and Redding Investments. Halifax’s principal owners, the Stephens family, also own Stephens Media, which publishes 11 daily newspapers, including the

Las Vegas Review-Journal,

and 64 weeklies, the

T&G

article said. Stephens Capital Partners’ CEO is Arkansas billionaire Warren Stephens.


A

Boston Business Journal

report noted

that Halifax was created as a vehicle to acquire the

Daytona Beach News-Journal.

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On June 2, Halifax cut about 20 of the

T&G

‘s 80 news employees, the

Boston Business Journal

reported.

The New York Times Co. bought the

T&G

for $296 million in 2000. The Times Co. tried to sell the

Globe

and the

T&G

in 2009 but pulled them off the market. Last August, the Times Co. sold both papers to Henry for $70 million. The price of the Halifax deal was not disclosed; analysts’ estimates range from $7 million to $15 million, the

T&G

article said. The

Boston Business Journal

report cited estimates of $15 million to $20 million. (Sources:

Worcester Telegram & Gazette,

May 21, 2014;

Boston Business Journal,

June 2, 2014.)

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