The ownership carousel for Southern California print media continues.
Voice Media Group – a leading owner of “alternative” weeklies that target a youthful audience – has put its Orange County publication, OC Weekly, up for sale.
OC Weekly serves an estimated 225,000 readers through free distribution, with what some people might politely call an edgy brand of journalism. Coverage dotted with salty language highlights local entertainment, culture and politics – not to mention more than a few barbs tossed at this publication.
Being hip doesn’t mean alternative weeklies escaped traditional print-centric journalism’s financial headaches as readers and advertising dollars scurried to digital delivery of information.
Media analyst Ken Doctor says a big challenge for alternative papers is shrinking national advertising, a key source of revenue. Also, many alternative weeklies have been slow to move content and ad dollars to online or mobile services.
As a genre, Doctor says, alternative weeklies have “failed to adapt” to the new media landscape and have become a “struggling business.”
This kind of industrywide profit plunge forced many media owners to retool. Just look around.
The Orange County Register in 2012 got new owners, who then bought the Riverside Press-Enterprise and OC Metro, a business magazine that recently was shuttered.
Digital First Media – which owns the Press-Telegram in Long Beach and other papers in Southern California and elsewhere – is up for sale. The Tribune media empire – owners of the Los Angeles Times – spun off its newspaper group last year. In San Diego, the U-T newspaper may be bought by a not-for-profit institution.
As for OC Weekly, its owners hired Dirks, Van Essen & Murray – media merger specialists from Santa Fe, N.M. – to peddle the weekly. Few details of how the sale would proceed were offered up.
The 20-year-old OC Weekly is “an extremely attractive opportunity for the right buyer or strategic partner,” said Voice Media CEO Scott Tobias.
Dirks had success in the past 14 months selling alternative weeklies in Cleveland, Orlando, San Antonio, Detroit, Baltimore and Tucson, said Sara April, a vice president at the company.
Buyers of alternative weeklies, she said, “see the profitability of these papers and that they have a unique voice.”
Guess we’ll see how much the voice is really worth.
Contact the writer: 949-777-6727 or jlansner@ocregister.com
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