Cautious optimism for the Statesman

Gannett, the media conglomerate that has owned the Austin American-Statesman since 2018, is selling what it was once described as its "flagship" publication to Hearst Communications, a storied newspaper chain.

This is good news. Or rather, it must be good news, because it couldn't possibly get worse than Gannett, which took what was already a shell of a paper and gutted it beyond recognition.

To be clear, it wasn't Gannett that bought the Statesman seven years ago. It was GateHouse Media, a private equity-backed company that throughout the 2010's bought scores of local papers and then stripped them to the bones to squeeze as much profit out of them as possible. But then GateHouse purchased Gannett, a century-old news company, and adopted its branding.

(In 2018 I wrote a lengthy article for Austin Monthly about the Statesman acquisition that doesn't seem to be online anymore. I wondered if that was because Austin Monthly had since been purchased by Gannett but it was actually purchased by Hearst last year! So I don't think they'd have any reason to intentionally take it down...)

The tremendous amounts of debt that GateHouse/Gannett took on to fuel its shopping spree is likely what is prompting it to sell the Statesman.