Thursday, January 03, 2008
Battens may sell The Roanoke Times' parent company
Plans will be unveiled today about The Roanoke Times’ owner, Landmark Communications.
Landmark Communications Inc., parent of The Roanoke Times, has hired national investment firms to explore selling the Norfolk-based company, including The Times.
“I can confirm that Landmark Communications has retained investment banks JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers to assist in exploring strategic alternatives, including the possible sale of the company’s businesses,” said Richard Barry, vice chairman of the company.
“We are exploring strategic alternatives, and that can entail a number of possibilities, one of which is the sale of the company’s businesses,” he said. “It’s very early in the process.”
He declined to say whether the company would be sold in whole or part, or at all. He also would not say why a decision was made now to explore the sale of the company.
An announcement had been planned for this morning at The Roanoke Times, said publisher Debbie Meade, a 24-year veteran of The Roanoke Times. Meetings for all employees have been scheduled for this afternoon, she said.
“We have enjoyed a wonderful relationship with Landmark as our parent company since 1969,” Meade said. “Under Landmark, we have become known for outstanding journalism and excellent business results.
“We are a well-run business, and I have complete confidence in the team we’ve assembled. We have a progressive culture, with the best employees at all levels ever in our history, and our future is bright. We may have different ownership, but we will continue to be a superb media company.
“I know some people will see this as a significant change, but for us, it is business as usual as we are focused on doing our jobs well, achieving our goals and maintaining our commitment to the community we serve.”
Bruce Bradley, publisher of The Virginian Pilot and a Landmark employee for 34 years, said, “While I am saddened about this development, I understand and agree with the business reasons for exploring these options.”
He also declined to say why the company was being marketed now.
Denis Finley, editor of The Pilot since 2005, said that if sold, he hoped a company with Landmark’s ethics and principles would be the buyer and continue the 143-year-old commitment to local journalism.
Landmark’s 2006 sales figures were $1.75 billion, and the company employs about 12,000 people. Landmark is the parent company of nine daily newspapers and more than 100 nondaily newspapers and specialty publications.
The Weather Channel, based in Atlanta, is one of the last privately owned cable channels in the United States, and Landmark has been known in the past to brush away offers for it.
In an interview with The New York Times last June, Debora Wilson, The Weather Channel’s chief executive, said, “Every media conglomeration has approached Landmark, and there’s never been a yes.”
With its Web site weather.com, The Weather Channel and its related properties could bring more than $5 billion alone, a person close to the sale said.
Besides The Weather Channel and its Web site, Landmark’s non-newspaper properties include one of the world’s biggest weather data companies, TV stations in Las Vegas and Nashville, Tenn., and Norfolk-based Dominion Enterprises, a national chain of classified-ad publications which alone represents about $850 million in revenue.
Frank Batten Sr. was instrumental in building the company since becoming its head in 1954. He stepped down as chairman in 1998, passing the reins to his son, Frank Batten Jr.
“The thing I think I’m most proud of,” Batten Sr. said in a 2000 interview, “is developing what I think is a first-rate company that has high values and makes a contribution to all the communities we serve.”
The company traces itself to Samuel Slover, a native of Tennessee and nicknamed “the colonel.” He had been an advertising wunderkind in Richmond, and had won control of a newspaper in Newport News and had sold it in 1907 to buy what would become The Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, the biggest paper in town.
Childless, Slover raised his nephew, Frank Batten Sr., as his own, imbuing him with a passion for the news business.
Frank Batten Jr., current chief executive and chairman, worked in The Pilot newsroom and in advertising in Roanoke and as publisher of The Virginian-Pilot, The Ledger-Star and a Landmark paper in Kentucky. He could not be reached for comment late Wednesday night.
In September 2005, Batten Jr. indicated that he wanted to reduce the company’s dependence on classified advertising and that he would seek to sell Landmark’s share in Trader Publishing Co., a joint operation with Cox Enterprises. A year later, Landmark split Trader’s assets with Cox.
Cox retained ownership of Trader’s automotive classified advertising business, while Landmark kept businesses including apartment, employment and real estate publications. Landmark renamed the collection of remaining businesses Dominion Enterprises.
“I can confirm that Landmark Communications has retained investment banks JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers to assist in exploring strategic alternatives, including the possible sale of the company’s businesses,” said Richard Barry, vice chairman of the company.
“We are exploring strategic alternatives, and that can entail a number of possibilities, one of which is the sale of the company’s businesses,” he said. “It’s very early in the process.”
He declined to say whether the company would be sold in whole or part, or at all. He also would not say why a decision was made now to explore the sale of the company.
An announcement had been planned for this morning at The Roanoke Times, said publisher Debbie Meade, a 24-year veteran of The Roanoke Times. Meetings for all employees have been scheduled for this afternoon, she said.
“We have enjoyed a wonderful relationship with Landmark as our parent company since 1969,” Meade said. “Under Landmark, we have become known for outstanding journalism and excellent business results.
“We are a well-run business, and I have complete confidence in the team we’ve assembled. We have a progressive culture, with the best employees at all levels ever in our history, and our future is bright. We may have different ownership, but we will continue to be a superb media company.
“I know some people will see this as a significant change, but for us, it is business as usual as we are focused on doing our jobs well, achieving our goals and maintaining our commitment to the community we serve.”
Bruce Bradley, publisher of The Virginian Pilot and a Landmark employee for 34 years, said, “While I am saddened about this development, I understand and agree with the business reasons for exploring these options.”
He also declined to say why the company was being marketed now.
Denis Finley, editor of The Pilot since 2005, said that if sold, he hoped a company with Landmark’s ethics and principles would be the buyer and continue the 143-year-old commitment to local journalism.
Landmark’s 2006 sales figures were $1.75 billion, and the company employs about 12,000 people. Landmark is the parent company of nine daily newspapers and more than 100 nondaily newspapers and specialty publications.
The Weather Channel, based in Atlanta, is one of the last privately owned cable channels in the United States, and Landmark has been known in the past to brush away offers for it.
In an interview with The New York Times last June, Debora Wilson, The Weather Channel’s chief executive, said, “Every media conglomeration has approached Landmark, and there’s never been a yes.”
With its Web site weather.com, The Weather Channel and its related properties could bring more than $5 billion alone, a person close to the sale said.
Besides The Weather Channel and its Web site, Landmark’s non-newspaper properties include one of the world’s biggest weather data companies, TV stations in Las Vegas and Nashville, Tenn., and Norfolk-based Dominion Enterprises, a national chain of classified-ad publications which alone represents about $850 million in revenue.
Frank Batten Sr. was instrumental in building the company since becoming its head in 1954. He stepped down as chairman in 1998, passing the reins to his son, Frank Batten Jr.
“The thing I think I’m most proud of,” Batten Sr. said in a 2000 interview, “is developing what I think is a first-rate company that has high values and makes a contribution to all the communities we serve.”
The company traces itself to Samuel Slover, a native of Tennessee and nicknamed “the colonel.” He had been an advertising wunderkind in Richmond, and had won control of a newspaper in Newport News and had sold it in 1907 to buy what would become The Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, the biggest paper in town.
Childless, Slover raised his nephew, Frank Batten Sr., as his own, imbuing him with a passion for the news business.
Frank Batten Jr., current chief executive and chairman, worked in The Pilot newsroom and in advertising in Roanoke and as publisher of The Virginian-Pilot, The Ledger-Star and a Landmark paper in Kentucky. He could not be reached for comment late Wednesday night.
In September 2005, Batten Jr. indicated that he wanted to reduce the company’s dependence on classified advertising and that he would seek to sell Landmark’s share in Trader Publishing Co., a joint operation with Cox Enterprises. A year later, Landmark split Trader’s assets with Cox.
Cox retained ownership of Trader’s automotive classified advertising business, while Landmark kept businesses including apartment, employment and real estate publications. Landmark renamed the collection of remaining businesses Dominion Enterprises.
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