Explore Acquiring a Legacy Media Outlet

Some Pocantico participants decided to explore the acquisition of legacy media outlets that have continued to be profitable even though there have been year-over-year declines. They will initially focus on a local newspaper with deep roots in a community, but there could be other opportunities.

They will be assessing the viability of this approach and doing the necessary research to see what might be a legacy media outlet ripe for this, why previous proposals of this type succeeded or failed, and what information and potential funders or investors would be needed to come up with a plan.

The goal is to improve the quality of local news by changing the mission from just making money to enrich for-profit companies to supporting and sustaining journalism and community information, more in line with parts of the independent journalism ecosystem.

Aciton-Acquisition

Taking the lead on this effort:

Martin Reynolds, Senior Editor – Community Engagement, Bay Area News Group

Michael Stoll, Executive Director and Editor, San Francisco Public Press

Others who pledged to help in the effort:

Kevin Davis, MakingNews.Biz, formerly of Investigative News Network (INN)

Craig Aaron, President and CEO, FreePress

Ricardo Sandoval-Palos, President, Board of Directors, Fund for Investigative Journalism

Michelle Garcia, freelance journalist and filmmaker

For more details, please refer to: