Fresno Bee publisher McClatchy announces merger with magazine company

McClatchy, the hedge fund controlled parent company of the Fresno Bee, announced plans Friday to merge with accelerate360, a major magazine publisher and distributor.

McClatchy and accelerate360 are owned by Chatham Asset Management, a New Jersey-based hedge fund with other assets in journalism and communications, reported the Miami Herald. McClatchy operates 30 newsrooms nationwide, including the Kansas City Star, Sacramento Bee, Modesto Bee and Merced Sun Star.

The boards of both companies voted to approve the intent to merge this week.

Tony Hunter, McClatchy’s chairman and CEO, would take the helm as chairman and CEO once the new entity is formed. The merger would fuse a local newspaper company that has won 54 Pulitzer Prizes with a line of glossy lifestyle and celebrity magazines – an unconventional marriage in the media industry that comes with cultural and ethical challenges, reported the Herald.

But McClatchy executives said that accelerate360’s tabloid publications, including the National Enquirer, Star, National Examiner and Globe, would be excluded from the merger, and that its most famous consultant – David Pecker – would not be associated with the new organization, reported the Herald.

Accelerate360’s content arm, a360media, produces 10 magazines, including Us Weekly, In Touch Weekly, Woman’s World and Life & Style.

The merged company would reach roughly 100 million unique readers a year.

“At the highest level, this creates value that, separately, both of us cannot do. If we don’t come together, the value of the individual companies is limited in the near-term,” Hunter told the Herald.

While both companies are profitable on their own, Hunter said that combining the two could triple both profits and revenues.

Chatham Asset Management completed the purchase of McClatchy out of bankruptcy protection in September 2020 in a deal valued at $312 million.

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article290697014.html#storylink=cpy