On Tuesday, it became official.
GateHouse Media closed its $1.1 billion takeover of Gannett, becoming the country's largest newspaper company by far as the industry tries to deal with print's decline.
The new company, which will keep the Gannett name, will oversee about 260 daily papers, including the Democrat and Chronicle and the Daily Messenger in Canandaigua, and hundreds of weekly publications.
The NewsGuild, the union representing journalists at many of the company's newspapers, said of the deal: “It’s bad for journalists, it’s bad for readers, and it’s bad for the future of local journalism."
NewsGuild-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said, “Local papers will likely vanish, jobs will be slashed, and reporting will suffer.”
For more on the potential effects locally and on journalism in general, click on the LISTEN link above to hear an interview with Joel Kaplan, professor of magazine, news, and digital journalism and associate dean for professional graduate studies at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
