The NY Post reports Gannett, Newhouse-owned Advance Publications, the family-owned Hearst Corp., McClatchy Newspapers and Tribune Co. are the companies huddling.
“It is still early stages,” said one source familiar with the talks. “Nobody has committed yet.”
The new company, if formed, would likely result in major downsizings of staffs at the five papers as companies would be able to eliminate the redundancy of paying competing national sales staffs, currently estimated to employ 150 to 200 people across all five companies.
The new company would probably employ no more than 50 people, one industry source estimated.
Tribune, which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun, is said to be the driving force behind the effort.
The proposed new company, which is going by the code name “Next Gen,” would involve forming a whole new for-profit company funded by the five titans of the newspaper world.
Newspaper publishers have seen their once-dominant positions eroded by advertisers moving money to digital outlets such as Craigslist, Google and Facebook.
From 2000 to 2013, US newspapers lost $40 billion in ad revenue, dropping to $23 billion.
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