I take one day off ...

I take one day of vacation on Friday, and what do they do over the weekend? They sell the newspaper!

Yesterday, we were given nine minutes notice of an “important all-employee meeting.” They announced that they sold the paper to Avista Capital Partners. Everybody’s response, after thinking “WTF,” was, “who?”

McClatchy is a well-known newspaper company, and they’re known for running their newspapers really really well. We’re one of the few newspapers in the country with too many reporters (not every story even fits in the newspaper every day, it gets kind of ugly).

We’ll be Avista’s first newspaper – their guinea pig. They also own Thompson Publishing, part of MGM Studios and shares in oil companies and health care providers.

I’ve been a journalist for about five years now, and so far I’ve dodged the bullet of being at a newspaper while it gets sold. I guess it’s something I’ll have to get used to, working in a “dying industry.” That’s such a load of crap, though. We have 20 percent profit margins, which most businesses would kill for.

At the all-employee meeting, some of the guys talked about how Avista is “creative” at finding ways to make companies “more efficient.” Gulp. Sounds like job cuts.

But I’m not too worried about my job. Not only am I one of the lowest-paid, youngest employees at the place, but I cover the one growing area of our circulation, the suburbs.

But still. It was weird. It totally came out of nowhere. When McClatchy bought the Star Tribune, they paid $1.2 billion for it, the highest price ever paid for a newspaper. Now they sell it for $550 million, what the crap?

All the notes we got from the McClatchy CEO and people yesterday sound like “Dear John” letters. “We love you, but it’s just not working.”

I feel so betrayed.

New York Times story about the sale
Star Tribune story about the sale
Pioneer Press story about the sale
Wall Street Journal story about the sale

Here's the reaction posted on the Pioneer Press Web site in their "comments" section: (Just a few of my favorites).

"The paper must clean house, and get rid of all the birkenstock, armpit hair radical liberal bra-burners, and put some common sense people on the editorial board and in the pressroom. The star and sickle needs to be put 6 feet under. What a disgrace this liberal rag was and is. No wonder readership is off. There aren't enough birdcages in Minnesota for this laughingstock of a paper to line. "

"I canceled my subscription to the Star Tribune a long time ago simply because of its amazing blatent left leaning political bias. A newspaper should give who, what, why, when and where in its articles not "let's check to see what the state DFL party has to say about this issue". I say good riddens and I hope that Avista cleans up that newspaper. "

"Selling the Trib is really great news. Perhaps the new owners will concentrate on facts and common sense reporting. This is an opportunity to rid the paper of the most biased reporters. I hope they take advantage of the opportunity. "

"Maybe the liberals will get the message that their bias in news artilcles doesn't sell papers".

All the bad spelling is original to the entries. That's my favorite part.