Post by bob quarteroni on Feb 11, 2012 15:45:30 GMT -5
Times Leader still lacks leadership
By Dave Janoski (STAFF WRITER)Published: February 11, 2012
WILKES-BARRE - Three months after announcing the departure of editor/publisher/co-owner Richard Connor, The Times Leader, one of Wilkes-Barre's two daily newspapers, has yet to name a permanent successor or address possible changes in its ownership.
HM Capital Partners LLC, the Texas-based private equity firm that was a key player in the acquisition of the newspaper by Mr. Connor and other investors in 2006, has removed The Times Leader's parent company from its current portfolio on its website, listing the company instead as a "realized investment" along with other entities it has acquired and then sold since 1992.
The Times Leader reported in 2006 that HM Capital was the controlling shareholder in the newly formed Wilkes-Barre Publishing Co., which paid the McClatchy Co. $65 million for the paper. The purchase was financed largely through a $45 million loan from Goldman Sachs, the paper reported.
HM Capital did not respond to requests for comment this week. In November, the company announced it would avoid future investments in media, which it called a "troubled area."
In a farewell column to readers last fall, Mr. Connor wrote that he remained an investor in the Times Leader's parent company, which he had renamed Impressions Media.
In an email exchange this week, Mr. Connor wrote that HM Capital "never invested money from its fund" in The Times Leader. "So, it was not the owner. It served as managing partner. Limited partners still exist."
He did not respond to further requests for comment.
Mr. Connor was joined by a group of local investors in purchasing The Times Leader, but stressed at the time of the purchase that they had no operational control of the newspaper.
One of those investors, Charles Parente, said Thursday when reached by phone that he knew nothing about HM Capital's status at The Times Leader and then hung up. Mr. Parente is a major shareholder and CEO of Pagnotti Enterprises, a diversified holding company in West Pittston.
Efforts to reach two other local investors, Frank M. Henry, chairman of the parent group of Martz Trailways, and Harold Flack, president of Diamond Manufacturing in Wyoming, were not successful.
Impressions Media interim CEO Prashant Shitut declined comment on the status of HM Capital and other ownership issues involving the newspaper.
On the day he announced his resignation from The Times Leader, Mr. Connor also announced he was stepping down as CEO of MaineToday Media, a company he formed with HM Capital and other investors to buy a chain of newspapers in Maine in 2009. Shortly before his resignation, he trimmed the payroll of MaineToday Media's five daily and weekly newspapers by 61 positions, leaving them with 430 employees.
On the day before Mr. Connor's resignation, a North Carolina paper supplier sued MaineToday Media, claiming it was owed nearly $125,000 for newsprint. A reply to the suit filed by MaineToday Media revealed the company was $7.6 million in debt.
HM Capital sought buyers for MaineToday Media, but on Friday evening the company's newspapers reported its board had reached an agreement with Maine Values LLC, a firm owned by wealthy Maine financier S. Donald Sussman, that leaves HM Capital as the majority owner.