Lots of Newspaper Deals, But Not Much Hope

The last three months of 2011 brought a sudden flurry of deals in the newspaper industry, with a number of fair-sized metropolitan and regional dailies trading hands. But the increased pace of deal-making doesn’t reflect improved fundamentals for newspaper publishing, which is expected to suffer another round of losses in 2012. Some of the newspapers were profitable when they traded hands, according to owners and buyers -- but the spate of acquisitions in no way suggests an industry that is on the upswing -- or has even hit bottom. In this context, newspaper publishers are going to have to continue cutting their workforces to trim costs. Smaller newspapers generally continue to do better than their large metro daily counterparts. Read more here