Catching the Falling Knife versus Personal Branding – April 2015 M&A Activity

A Maine newspaper group has cleaned up its balance sheet, improved the quality of its journalism, and plans to improve the efficiency of its print operations. MaineToday Media announced that it is being purchased by local businessman and publisher Reade Brower. Brower teamed up with Chris Miles, his partner in another venture, Alliance Press, to purchase the papers from billionaire hedge fund manager S. Donald Sussman. Sussman saved MaineToday Media, Maine’s dominant news organization, from almost certain closure in 2011 when he purchased the insolvent company from HM Capital Partners. 

Sussman reportedly invested a total of more than $16 million in the publishing company. He appears to be walking away happy even though the entire proceeds from the latest sale are going to pay down company debt. In an eloquent commentary on the value of maintaining high journalistic standards in the print medium, Sussman stated that it was his “honor to have been the steward of these trusted newspapers.” It remains to be seen if the buyers have caught the falling knife (the company has been sold four times in 17 years, each time for far less than before), or if they can continue to uphold the “value of local, quality journalism and the civic responsibility the paper has to its community.”