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.
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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