Unable To Find Buyers, Journal Reg Shutters 33 Smalltown Weeklies

imageAn increasing number of newspapers are facing the dire consequences of being closed unless their owners can find a buyer. Considering the state of newspapers in general and this being the worst economy in 50 years, the prospect of finding someone with the wherewithal to take over a paper is pretty slender. That’s the situation Journal Register (OTCBB: JRCO), which owns 27 daily newspapers and 327 non-daily papers, found itself in as it tried to unload its dozens of smalltown weeklies. Mediapost catalogs the recent list of 33 fallen — or about to fall — Journal Reg papers throughout New York, Connecticut, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

As we noted last month, two Journal Reg-owned Connecticut dailies, The Bristol Press and The Herald were about two weeks away from stopping the presses for good, but Michael Schroeder, owner of Central Connecticut Communications and a former Newsday exec, stepped in with an offer to buy. That deal also saved three Connecticut weeklies, but these days, such deals appear to be the exception, not the rule.

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