From a story on our Web site:An announcement is scheduled Thursday that the Batten family which owns Landmark Communications Inc. has hired national investment advisers to sell the Norfolk-based company, including the News & Record.
Another from the Times.
Don't know what this means for us, yet. More tomorrow.
Thursday a.m. update: I see our link is broken. Go here to the Pilot's story until it's fixed.
We have employee meetings throughout the day pertaining to the possible sale of Landmark. Dick Barron is working on the ongoing story. Check for updates.
The immediate bottom line, though, for the community and our folks is this: Our strategy isn't changing. We're still pursuing growth. We're still expanding into online. We're still hiring. We're still investing $$ for good works in the community. We're still pursuing excellent journalism.
More as this develops. If you have questions, ask 'em here.
Relevant to maybe something or probably nothing, I don't know: I understand from the publisher that TV and radio stations were calling for comment on the possible sale of the paper. I know he was pretty occupied all day reassuring employees that it was not apocalypse now. I don't know if or how many news inquiries he ended up handling.
Meanwhile, no one asked me any intelligent questions on the blog post below, at least as of this writing. So, does that mean the news media didn't know about this blog, that they didn't care to ask me, that they didn't need information but needed a talking head, or something else entirely?
It isn't particularly important, but it is curious to me. As more and more people are online, isn't that where the news media goes, to where the people -- including us -- are?
(I know Neill McNeill of Fox knows about blogs. He comments here.)
Online News Squared takes notice of the possible sale of Landmark Communications and made me smile.
My newspaper column
In 1964, Frank Batten Sr. owned two newspapers in Norfolk, Va., and was focused on buying the Greensboro Daily News, The Greensboro Record and WFMY from the Jeffress family.
Batten, who went on to build a billion-dollar media company -- Landmark Communications, which now includes dozens of newspapers, two television stations and the Weather Channel -- said it wasn't exactly a standard transaction.
As he recounts in his 2002 book, "The Weather Channel: the Improbable Rise of a Media Phenomenon," the deal hinged more on personal values than market values.
"We reached a verbal understanding with the owners, and both parties signed their names to a one-page agreement. About a week later, another qualified buyer offered to pay several million dollars more than our agreed-upon price.
"Even though our one-page agreement would never have survived in court, the owners honored it, and we acquired the papers and station at the original price. I like to think that Landmark would have behaved in exactly the same way had our roles been reversed."