Again It’s the Australians Buying Up US Local Newspapers

It seems no one has to persuade the Australians that small market newspapers in the US are a good investment. Macquarie Media Group (MMG) has just bought another 23 to go with the 40 it bought a few months back giving it a stable of 63 local newspapers.

This time MMG swooped on Superior Publishing Corporation that publishes 19 newspapers in the Midwest and Grove Sun Newspaper Company that publishes four newspapers in Oklahoma. Total price is around US$67 million.

In January MMG spent US$80 million buying the 40 newspapers of American Consolidated Media (ACM) in Texas and Oklahoma.

And the Australians are making clear, as they have done before, that they consider these purchases to be just the start.

"When we acquired ACM back in February it was too small on its own and we said we thought it was a good platform and we could grow from acquisitions. Superior is just the first of those acquisitions," said MMG managing director Alex Harvey.

He continued, "What we have said is that we are hopeful that in the short to medium term we can do more transactions in the US. That is not to say we aren't thinking about other areas as well. We are opportunistic and we are looking at assets that we can buy at sensible prices and add value through the management we bring, or the synergies, or the structure."

The company has specifically said it is staying away from larger metropolitan newspapers. "Our focus is on the hyper-local market where they are isolated markets, protected markets and markets where there is potential for nice growth in circulation," Harvey said. – June 13, 2007

Keywords:Macquarie,media investment

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