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THE NEWSPAPER WAR JUST ENDED

Well, it looks like Quick wins. The A.M. Journal Express folded today. Jeremy Halbreich, CEO of parent company American Consolidated Media, said that the main reason was money. A number of planned investors pulled out. Also, ACM is planning four "significant" acquisitions of community newspapers, and Halbreich said it didn't make sense to divert funds from that effort to float the Express.

But there was another reason they folded. Halbreich said the News played hard and dirty. Said he:

To be real candid with you, if anyone wants a good example of why the FCC cross-ownership rules should not be relaxed, they need only look at Belo and the Morning News in Dallas. There has been a regular--at times, almost daily--vandalism and theft going on of our newspaper boxes. Regular confrontations by Morning News field personnel of our distribution reps. ... And then there's been all sorts of threats and pressure on all of our advertisers. There's no question that slowed us up considerably. There was a constant, constant barrage of that. Literally every advertiser who ran with us was getting that treatment, to some degree or another.

Halbreich, in my experience, is a very guarded guy who chooses his words carefully. When he launched the Express, he repeatedly refused to say that the move was in any way personally motivated (he used to be president of the News). Having had to shutter the paper, he's making it sound awfully personal now.

My bet: with no competition, the News will stop this Quick experiment within six months.

Tim Rogers · April 30, 2004 03:47 PM