© Reuters. The Boston Herald put up for sale
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – the parent company of The Boston Herald has placed Friday under the protection of the u.s. bankruptcy code and announced its intention to sell the newspaper group, Gatehouse Media.
The announcement is a new illustration of the difficulties of the traditional press in the face of the emergence of new media and new modes of dissemination of information and to the fall in advertising revenues.
Competitor to the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, founded in 1846, employed approximately 900 employees at the height of its activity, in 2000. It employs more today than 240 people, including a large one half of journalists, and its circulation fell to 64.500 copies.
In a letter addressed to employees and published by the journal, the publisher Patrick Purcell, who was acquired in the 1990’s News Corp, the conglomerate of Rupert Murdoch, underlines that this transfer is the best solution to save this title from press.
Gatehouse publishes newspapers and magazines in Massachusetts. The details of the sale, subject to a judicial decision, were not disclosed.
(Jim Christie; Henri-Pierre André for French service) OLFRBUS Reuters France Online Report Business News 20171209T111347+0000