What assets does a struggling community newspaper have? Not sure. But whatever the Capitol Hill Times has left has been sold. Here is the notice from the Times site:
Pacific Publishing Co. Inc. has announced the assets of the Capitol Hill Times have been sold to the Washington Legal Journal.
There are no staff changes or layoffs planned as a result of the sale.
Under the terms of a management agreement, Pacific Publishing Co. will continue to publish the Times and be responsible for all editorial, sales, production and distribution functions.
Buyer of the ‘assets’ is the Washington Legal Journal. The WLJ bills itself as “a leading legal journal providing indispensable foreclosure industry news and information, including full text Trustee Sale Notices, throughout the Puget Sound area.”
It’s not clear what this will mean for the Times though the notice certainly makes it sound like business as usual for the paper. Assets could include anything from computer hardware and offices to intellectual property. Maybe this is just an elaborate way to describe an office furniture sale.
As the entire newspaper industry falls to pieces, Capitol Hill Times has also struggled with balancing expenses and a quickly tilting advertising landscape. It laid off staff back in October including its only Capitol Hill-dedicated editor and shifted from a weekly to a biweekly format
I read the C. Hill times often, but, read this blog more often.
Given a choice, the blog is quicker and easier, given, the C. Hill Times still has some decent information from time to time. The legal notices are an entire second section. Their stable of column writers seem to be burnt out drop offs from other publications. That group needs some new ideas and new approaches – stronger editor maybe – would be a better read.
I used to work at the Capitol Hill Times eons ago. We knew everything that went on on the Hill (two of us full-time) and printed as much as we had room for. Sort of like the blog but not as fast or with as much space.
The “assets” for a newspaper aren’t usually much: computers, office furniture and, the big one, the paper’s name and ability to make money. Which sounds not good right now.
Maybe the new owners figure they can make it work with their other publications.
Talked to a few people (no, not anonymous internet people) who describe this kind of thing as an ‘investment.’ Will be interesting to watch.