What's going on, Albuquerque?

Is The Tribune Saved or Doomed?

Since Joe Monahan decided to write today how the Albuquerque Tribune is apparently still doomed, I thought back to driving home from work one night while listening to KUNM. Monahan says, "no buyer for the ABQ Tribune has emerged," but the KUNM report said otherwise. While they were not completely optimistic, if I remember correctly, things did sound pretty good to me. Better than when we heard there was a potential buyer back in October.

As does the New Mexico Business Weekly. On Friday, the NM Business Weekly reported DW Turner is in the final stages of buying the previously-doomed paper. And as of Friday, DW Turner's President Tom Carroll seemed to be confident that they would soon own Albuquerque's second paper.

Tom Carroll, president of DW Turner, an Albuquerque public relations firm that made an offer for the paper, said Turner is in final negotiations with Scripps for a definitive purchase agreement and is putting together an investment group made up of mostly people from New Mexico. That process closes Dec. 17. Carroll said the plan is to seal the deal with Scripps by the end of the year.

The main reason information is scarce is because the two sides have a confidentially agreement, so cannot speak about how negotiations are going. Hopefully we'll get some great news about the paper on either Dec 17 or by the end of the year. It would be a nice Christmas present if we were told the Journal wouldn't be our sole daily paper in the town.
Now comes the tricky part - the joint operating agreement or JOA. The ABQTrib and ABQJournal have a JOA which runs until 2022. Under this JOA, the two papers share a printing press and profits. With the Trib's plummeting circulation and advertising numbers, they are obviously getting the better end of the deal.

Any purchase of the Trib won't include the JOA, seen by many to be the most profitable piece of the paper. Instead, the owner will essentially receive a paper without a printing press. But if that is what DW Turner wants, that is what they will get.

Also, KUNM says DW Turner will "not be hands off" in their approach to the paper. Uh oh.

The paper announced it would be seeking a buyer or going out of business on August 29.

Crossposted at New Mexico FBIHOP

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Comment by bleve on December 11, 2007 at 11:10am: Hmmm... I think the Trib should take an innovative stance and put money into their website, scrap the daily and put out a quality print Sunday Edition... and keep their JOA. Charge $2 if they have to for the Sunday.

The right-slanted diatribe of the Journal needs to be challenged but I think concentrating on their strength (their website), would be beneficial for the Trib in the long run... I really should charge for this advice.

Comment by Mary Schmidt on December 12, 2007 at 9:46am: I agree with bleve - the Trib site is already far better than that of many "big" newspapers. They could really carve a lucrative niche for themselves and make money for online subscriptions (Consumer Report does it)

I personally would love a Sunday edition - the bigger the better! (And, I'd - um - subscribe.)

As for the right slant - well, the Trib does have rightie columnist Jeffry Gardner (oh, wait a minute, he's comic relief. Never mind!)

(( normally do charge for this type of advice ;-)

Comment by bleve on December 12, 2007 at 11:58am: Every major business move is a risk. Unfortunately for the Trib its transition or die. I agree about the subscriptions but regional online advertising is projected to jump by billions in the next few years and a $2 Sunday Edition could help them stay afloat... not to mention the drastic reduction in overhead costs by focusing online.

I think they have the potential to go from dwindling daily to an online innovator, while offering quality print reporting in a Sunday Edition. The range of content is opened up online with the ability for video and podcasting as well as rich media advertising... in addition to their Sunday print advertising also.

Their dire situation could actually be a blessing if they were willing to make some real decisions... and pry their dying hands from the print model.

Comment by Mary Schmidt on December 12, 2007 at 12:11pm: Well, in order for online to work - for any publication - they've got to get away from the traditional advertising
model. The reason neither the NYT or WSJ paid model worked is that they didn't have clue one what they were doing. (Doc Searls has written extensively about NYT and what they should have done.)

The "overlords" would have to look at things from way outside the box, which probably won't happen.
They should have been thinking about a new strategy (and how to implement it) at least a year to 18 months ago. Even the best marketing strategy takes time to work - and it seems the Trib is out of that most precious resource.

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