Digital First Media, a national newspaper chain that has earned a reputation for relentless cost-cutting, emerged as the winning bidder for the Boston Herald in a bankruptcy auction held Tuesday.
According to boston.com, the Denver-based company, which is also known as MediaNews Group and is owned by New York investment firm Alden Global Capital, beat out two other bidders with a package that totaled nearly $12 million in cash and assumed liabilities, according to Herald publisher Pat Purcell.
The winning bid is significantly higher than the initial offers by two other bidders, GateHouse Media and Revolution Capital Group.
The sale still needs to be approved by a bankruptcy court judge, who is expected to review the deal Friday. The proceeds will be divided among the creditors through the bankruptcy process.
Digital First owns the Denver Post, the Orange County Register, the Mercury News of San Jose, and numerous other papers in Colorado, California, and several other states. The company owns two dailies in Massachusetts, the Lowell Sun and Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg, and previously owned the Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield.
After years of trimming costs to keep pace with declines in print advertising, Purcell put the Herald up for sale last September and eventually reached an agreement with GateHouse, which owns a number of papers in the region. At the time, the Herald listed debts and liabilities of roughly $31 million, with the Globe, which prints the Herald, among its largest creditors.
GateHouse’s offer of $4.5 million in cash and up to $500,000 for employees’ paid time off, however, was contingent on the Herald wiping out most of its liabilities in bankruptcy court. Since then, Revolution Capital Group submitted an initial bid that was similar to GateHouse’s, and Digital First Media entered the bidding last week.
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