Categories: OLD Media Moves

Guardian Media looking to sell PaidContent.org

Peter Kafka of All Things Digital reports that Guardian Media Group has put New York-based media news site PaidContent and its parent company ContentNext on the block.

Kafka writes, “The British newspaper publisher has hired boutique bank Coady Diemar Partners to market the company. People familiar with the sale believe the Guardian is looking for something in the $15 million to $20 million range for the property, which would let it recoup its initial investment and subsequent infusions of working capital.

“The move, which the company has contemplated for the last year or so, comes as the British newspaper publisher is going through a cost-cutting round while simultaneously gearing up for an attempt to create a U.S. foothold, via New York-based Web operation. Alan Hudson, a Bank of America executive hired by the Guardian this summer to ‘oversee the company’s investment portfolio,’ is overseeing the sale.

“Here’s a statement from a Guardian PR rep, sent in response to my query about the sale:

‘Following a strategic review Guardian News & Media has decided to seek a buyer for ContentNext Media. ContentNext is a high-quality asset but our focus in the US is on building the Guardian. It’s early days but we have received several expressions of interest and are talking to a select number of potential buyers.'”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.