Thomson’s trims: Terminus? Chain clustering continues

NewsInc November 25, 1996 An agreement in principle for a three-way swap between Thomson, Hollinger and Cox for nine papers on Nov. 1 largely continued the current vogue of clustering among chains. web site greenville daily news

Hollinger left the deal with the lion’s share of readers, picking up Thomson’s Mt. Vernon, IL, Register-News, the Enid, OK, News & Eagle, and the St. Joseph, MI, Herald-Palladium. The papers’ total circulation is about 67,000.

“We viewed the papers separately and apart from synergies” with other Hollinger operations, said Ken Serota, Hollinger’s vice president of law and finance. That said, he added, the Mt. Vernon daily is close to Hollinger operations in southern Illinois, and the Enid daily fits neatly into the company’s belt of papers there.

Thomson, in turn, scored two of Hollinger’s Indiana dailies, the Greensburg Daily News and the Hartford City News-Times, as well a nearby twice-weekly, the Batesville Herald Tribune. In a press release, Thomson said those papers, with a combined circulation of about 12,000, will join the chain’s Indiana strategic marketing group of dailies located in Logansport, Kokomo, and Anderson.

Cox acquired Hollinger’s Tarboro, NC, Daily Southerner and Thomson’s Marshall, TX, News Messenger, with combined circulation of about 15,000. The latter fits in with Cox operations in Longview and Nacogdoches, and the former will fit in with the North Carolina group Cox began with its Greenville Daily Reflector acquisition (NewsInc., Jan. and continued when it swapped six Arizona papers for two of Thomson’s in North Carolina on Aug. 20 (NewsInc., Sept. 2).

The three-way deal also involved an undisclosed amount of cash.

“We’re trying to knit together clusters of papers that we think can serve good growth markets,” said Cox Newspapers president Jay Smith, in outlining the clustering strategy. Circulation of the papers in question “may on their own be 10,000 or 15,000, but if you can put enough together, that gives you the opportunity to sell ads to a much larger market and, potentially, to operate them a lot more efficiently.” The news followed on the heels of the Oct. 29 announcement that Thomson had reached an agreement in principle to sell three papers–the Petersburg, VA, Progress-Index, the Shamokin, PA, News-Item, and the Valley View, PA, Citizen-Standard–to the Lynett family that owns the Scranton, PA, Times. go to website greenville daily news

With these deals, and with 11 papers it sold to MediaNews and Ogden Newspapers earlier this fall, Thomson has dealt with 16 of the 29 non-strategic dailies it put up for sale or trade on Sept. 20 (NewsInc., Oct. 14).

According to Thomson president Dick Harrington, another announcement will follow shortly after you read this, probably around Nov. 30, when the company will make public further transactions from its sale list.

Following that forthcoming announcement, Harrington said, “all are accounted for except for nine, in the sense we’ve got agreed-upon prices and, most likely, letters of intent” to purchase the other remaining newspapers.

The other nine, Harrington added, “are in negotiations, but we haven’t finalized price or letters of intent.” Unrelated off-the-record talks with sources at other newspaper groups confirmed that at least two major chains are in negotiations with Thomson.

Though August’s Thomson-Cox swap featured unspecified other considerations as part of its terms, Smith said that, save for the cash Cox netted in that deal, there’s no connection between the two transactions. Those considerations, he said, may be made public by mid-December.

Target has green goals for North Long Beach

Press-Telegram September 29, 2008 | John Canalis LONG BEACH – Those behind the soon-to-open Target Store in North Long Beach plan to bring two seemingly contrasting shades of “green” to the 9 th District: Commerce and environmentalism.

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. calls the 126,000-square-foot center slated to open Oct. 12 at 6750 Cherry Ave. environmentally friendly.

But is the store really easy on the Earth or just being scrubbed in a marketing slogan known as “greenwashing?” The former, said city officials, adding that the new building met Long Beach’s recently approved standards for sustainable construction.

Recycled materials, toxic-free paints and environmentally sensitive materials were used to build the store over nine months.

Energy-efficient lighting was installed throughout. The thermostat was dialed up a bit to reduce reliance on the cooling system, and many of the lights go down at night to save energy.

“We have a strong environmental philosophy,” said Mike License, on-site construction manager at the store. “Target likes to be the leader on stuff like that.” Vice Mayor Val Lerch, who took a tour of the store last week with other city officials, said he likes the environmental angle but is also pleased with the new paychecks coming to his 9 th District. pizzahutcouponcodesnow.org pizzahut coupon codes

The new Target will require 500 full- and part-time workers – 300 of them new hires and roughly 200 transfers from the closing Target location on South Street – to a city with a higher unemployment rate than the national and state averages.

Lerch has made attracting major retailers to his 9 th District, which lacks the variety of shops found in other parts of Long Beach, a priority since his election in 2002.

“Right now, to me, it’s the single-biggest accomplishment since I’ve been on the council,” he said of the new store.

Lerch and the city’s Economic Development Bureau and Redevelopment Agency spent more than two years negotiating with Target Corp. to bring the store to a shopping center that also includes a Food4 Less.

The Cherry Avenue location certainly met the “blighted” criteria so the project could qualify for redevelopment incentives.

The Target was built on the site of the former Home Base, which stood vacant for a decade. Tearing down the store’s shell was such a big to-do in Northtown that the Jordan High band performed at the demolition in 2007. Some of the materials from Home Base were recycled and used in building the Target.

Target Operations Manager Kelly Andrews recently provided Lerch, city officials, community leaders and the media a preview of the store, which also houses a Starbucks and PizzaHut Express.

About 50 percent of the merchandise needed to fill the Target was already on display, including fashions that will not officially go on sale until October.

Target is increasingly attracting major designers, including Converse, Liz Lang and Mossimo, Andrews said, as she showed visitors some of the labels. go to web site pizzahut coupon codes

“We’re getting bigger names,” she said.

Halloween and Christmas decorations were already on display in aisles adorned in red and white and Target’s ubiquitous, circular logo.

The store features many of the same departments found at the Target in the Eastside’s Los Altos Shopping Center, including electronics, toys, office supplies, home decor and a limited amount of groceries, such as cereal, soda, milk, butter, eggs, frozen meals, bread and snacks.

Like the Los Altos store, the Cherry Avenue location will not sell fresh meat and produce, but Andrews said, “We do have all the things you want to put in your pantry, fridge and freezer.” The Cherry Avenue Target will have something the Los Altos location does not: A pharmacy. Prescriptions will start at $4.

Because of its proximity to the new store, the existing Target at 3705 E. South St. will close at about the same time the new store opens, Andrews said.

That will leave the city of Long Beach with two locations. There are also Target stores in Lakewood, Signal Hill and Seal Beach.

john.canalis@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1273 John Canalis