Community Newspaper Holdings

Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.

Type	Government Owned (Retirement Systems of Alabama)
Industry	Advertising sales
Founded	1997
Headquarters	Montgomery, Alabama, USA
Key people	George Wakefield, Chairman Donna J. Barrett, President and Chief Executive Officer Lynn Pearson , Chief Financial Officer
Products	Newspapers
Revenue	$520 million USD (2009)
Number of employees	6,501 (2007)
Website	http://www.cnhi.com/

Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. (CNHI) is an American publisher of newspapers and advertising-related publications throughout the United States. The company was formed in 1997 by Ralph Martin,^[1] and is based in Montgomery, Alabama^[2] (after moving from Birmingham, Alabama in September 2011). The company is financed by the Retirement Systems of Alabama.

History

The company has been formed by acquisitions. It started by acquiring many of the smaller former Park papers from Media General. Two years later, it bought several papers from Hollinger International. In 2000, it acquired another batch of papers from the Thomson Corporation.

In 2002, CNHI paid $182 million for 4 daily newspapers and other non-daily publications from Ottaway Newspapers Inc., the community newspaper group of Dow Jones & Co. Inc., that Ottaway had determined not to be growth markets.^[3] In 2006, the company acquired 6 more newspapers from Ottaway.^[4] Ottaway used $144 million of the 2002 sale to buy the Record newspaper in Stockton, California, in 2003.^[5] In September 2013, Dow Jones, which had renamed the properties as Dow Jones Local Media Group, sold the entire remaining group of 33 community newspapers to Newcastle Investment Corp. for a total of only $87 million.^[6] In 2007, CNHI sold the Santa Cruz Sentinel, a former Ottaway publication, to MediaNews Group.^[7]

As of 2006, CNHI owned 90 daily newspapers and more than 200 non-daily newspapers in 22 states. George Wakefield is CNHI chairman; Donna Barrett is president and CEO. CNHI newspapers are clustered in groups that cross-sell packages to advertisers^[1] and occasionally feature shared editorial content.

In 2009, CNHI implemented mandatory furloughs for most non-sales staff, requiring employees to take a mandatory week off without pay every quarter. As of 2015, these DOWOP (days off without pay) were still in effect. Also in 2014, most CNHI newspaper sites put a paywall into place, requiring readers to subscribe after reading 5 articles.

On June 24, 2010, the company announced that it would relocate its headquarters and about 70 jobs to Montgomery, Alabama, into the RSA Dexter Tower Building when that building is complete in late 2011 or early 2012.^[8] Like its former headquarters in Birmingham, the new building is owned by Retirement Systems of Alabama, which is the principal source of investment funding for CNHI. David Bronner, CEO of the RSA, said the move will be good for the community and the company. The Montgomery Advertiser newspaper reported that Bronner was a key player in the move. With CNHI's Birmingham lease expiring, the decision to bring the company to Montgomery "was something that I strongly suggested," he said, according to the newspaper. The city and Montgomery County offered $300,000 in incentives to pay moving costs for the company.^[8]

In April 2012, along with GateHouse Media, Lee Enterprises and The E.W. Scripps Company, CNHI invested in Find n Save, an online company which offers local media an online shopping platform.^[9]

CNHI newspapers

See: List of newspapers published by Community Newspaper Holdings

CNHI tends to purchase smaller, less famous newspapers. Few of its dailies have circulations above 20,000; exceptions include:

• The Eagle-Tribune of North Andover, Massachusetts—49,700^[10]
• The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown, Pennsylvania—41,200^[11]
• The Joplin Globe of Joplin, Missouri—30,600^[11]
• Cumberland Times-News of Cumberland, Maryland—30,200^[11]
• The Salem News of Salem, Massachusetts—30,000^[10]
• The Register-Herald of Beckley, West Virginia—28,700^[11]
• Tribune-Star of Terre Haute, Indiana—27,900^[11]
• The Herald Bulletin of Anderson, Indiana—24,300^[11]
• Kokomo Tribune of Kokomo, Indiana—21,900^[11]
• Mankato Free Press of Mankato, Minnesota—21,700^[11]
• The Herald of Sharon, Pennsylvania—20,400^[11]
• Bluefield Daily Telegraph of Bluefield, West Virginia—20,400^[11]

References

Further reading

• Walton, Mary (May 1999). "The State of The American Newspaper: The Selling of Small-town America". American Journalism Review. College Park: University of Maryland Foundation. 

External links

• CNHI official website