Archive for the 'Business' Category

Daily Progress Sold to Berkshire Hathaway

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 17, 2012 in Business and Meta News. 19 Comments Tags: , .

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is buying Media General’s newspapers, which means that the Daily Progress is changing hands. It was 1995 when Media General Bought the now-120-year-old newspaper from Worrell Enterprises, a local, family-owned business, and by most measures, the newspaper has not fared well since. The entire print journalism industry has been in a slump since advertising dollars began moving online a decade ago. It’s not clear what the future financial model will be for local journalism, and the whole industry seems to be waiting for somebody to swoop in and figure it out. Berkshire Hathaway—technically, BH Media Group—is buying 63 newspapers for $142M.

Buffett already owns a few newspapers, including the Buffalo News and the recently purchased Omaha World-Herald, and owns the largest share of the Washington Post. Buffett has said that he sees newspapers’ value as a community hub, and that their most valuable function is providing information that isn’t available elsewhere, something that many newspapers—including the Progress—have been struggling with. He’s also said that it’s a mistake for newspapers to give away so much material online for free.

What all of this will mean for the Progress remains to be seen, but it’s a fair guess that this is good news. Media General has basically been supervising a slow collapse of their print properties, with no apparent ability to arrest or reverse that collapse. Buffett is perhaps the deepest of deep-pocketed investments out there, known for shrewd, long-term, community-focused thinking. The future of the Progress is looking a lot brighter.

Progress Editor Leaving for UVA

Published by Waldo Jaquith on May 4, 2012 in Business and Meta News. 7 Comments Tags: .

McGregor McCance, managing editor of the Daily Progress for seven years, is becoming the latest employee of the paper to depart for UVA. McCance is going to work for university spokeswoman Carol Wood.(Note that the position of managing editor is the top editorial position at the Progress—there is nobody with the title of, simply, “editor.”) Today was McCance’s last day. The Progress doesn’t yet have a replacement for McCance.

Media General Planning to Shed Newspapers

Published by Waldo Jaquith on April 10, 2012 in Business and Meta News. 9 Comments Tags: .

Media General is planning for a post-newspaper business model, Richard Craver writes for the Winston-Salem Journal. The media giant—andDaily Progress owner—has made it known that all of their newspapers are for sale, and a recent regulatory filing forecasts revenues premised on the assumption that they’ll strip the company down to its television stations and electronic media components. Media General claims that multiple parties have expressed interest in purchasing their newspapers. They’ve said that they’re interested in selling all of the properties off together, or individually, meaning that it’s possible that another big media company could take ownership of the Progress, but it’s also within the realm of possibility that somebody local could buy it.

Media General purchased the Daily Progress from the Worrell family in 1995, along with the rest of the Charlottesville-area family’s Virginia newspaper properties.

Landmark Hotel Set to be Auctioned

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 19, 2012 in Business and Development. 26 Comments

The incomplete Landmark Hotel is going up for auction, Henry Graff reports for NBC-29. A federal bankruptcy court will sell it off, to satisfy $2.8M in construction costs unpaid by Halsey Minor, who ran out of money shortly after the steel framework of the building went up a few years ago. Minor’s one-time partner, former Charlottesville developer Lee Danielson, claims a billionaire backer is going to help him win the structure at auction, presumably to finish building the boutique hotel. The auction, if it happens, would likely be held in three months.

Beleaguered Children’s Mental Health Facility to Be Demolished

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 18, 2012 in Business. 4 Comments

Jefferson Trail Treatment Center for Children is going out of business, and the building is being demolished, CBS-19 reports. You might remember Jefferson Trail under any of its prior names, which it kept changing every time they were found to have beaten or raped their young patients: Millmont Center, Brown Schools, or Whisper Ridge. They changed their name three years ago after the director of operations pleaded guilty to attempting to have sex with one of the children in her care. (For more on how terribly that kids were treated at the facility, see examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.) But I’ll say this for Jefferson Trail: there’s no evidence that they ever abused their patients while they operated under that name. So, uh…good job?

Sideblog

More photos of Charlottesville