The Providence Journal | A.H. Belo | WPRI
Providence Journal Publisher Howard G. Sutton told employees Wednesday morning that the paper’s owner, A.H. Belo, is exploring a sale of the publication, Paul Edward Parker reports.
Selling the newspaper “would allow the Company to continue to focus resources and management time and attention on its core Dallas market,” an A.H. Belo press release says. The company also owns The Dallas Morning News and the Denton Record-Chronicle. It recently sold The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise to Aaron Kushner.
The Journal’s average Sunday circulation was 105,810 in September, down 11 percent from the previous year. Its average weekday circulation was 106,605, down about 7 percent from September 2012. The paper’s “advertising revenue has plunged 66% since 2005, falling to $46 million last year,” WPRI’s Ted Nesi reports. The paper offered buyouts in September, and 12 people took them. In April, the Journal named Karen A. Bordeleau its executive editor.
“Company officials cautioned that it wouldn’t sell The Journal if it could not find an appropriate buyer or could not come to acceptable terms with a would-be buyer,” Parker writes.
