Owners of The Signal and Gazette Reveal Plan to End Dispute over Legal Ad Placements

Valley newspapermen to form publishing partnership to keep Gazette ‘intact and independent’

SANTA CLARITA, Calif.--()--The Santa Clarita Valley’s newspapers have devised a plan to end their dispute over legal advertising placements that has the Gazette’s owners entering into a publishing venture with the three businessmen who also own The Santa Clarita Valley Signal.

The plan, which was approved by the bankruptcy court, establishes SCV Publications, LLC as the owner and publisher of the Gazette and Canyon Country Magazine. The new entity is to be jointly owned by the owners of The Signal and by Gazette publishers Doug and Jean Sutton. Under the operating agreement, the Suttons will have management and editorial control of the Gazette and Canyon Country Magazine (CCM).

The Signal and the Gazette were locked in a dispute over the disposition of public notice and legal advertising, a substantial revenue source for papers of record in any community. The argument spilled onto the pages of both newspapers and became the source of considerable attention in other local media. The Signal carried editorials on the subject and Sutton featured the dispute in his blog, “Doug’s Rant.”

“The media discussion was quite heated,” Sutton admitted. “We went at each other ferociously and plenty of others joined in. But the beauty of our court system is that it can bring parties together. When we started to talk face-to-face, it was clear we, as owners, had a lot in common. In particular, we shared a real fervor for the Santa Clarita Valley and, more importantly, community news.”

“Once everyone understood that we shared the same values, it was easy to get down to business,” said Chuck Champion, Publisher of The Signal. “The Gazette needed money to relieve its debt. With the partnership, the new entity will assume some of it and then renegotiate the rest with creditors. That way the Gazette can emerge as a viable publishing concern without legal ad revenue.”

Sutton said that the big winners in the plan are the community and local readers.

“The Gazette serves an important readership base in this valley, one that is different from The Signal’s,” he said. “By settling our differences and working together as business partners, we’re preserving a critical voice in the community. It’s a good thing we’ve done here.”

The editorial staffs of the Gazette and CCM will remain unchanged in the new company. Both publications rely heavily on a loyal group of professional freelancers to produce content. Sutton said that SCV Publications, LLC will use the same content development model.

“Our partnership revolves around a shared community mission,” Champion concluded. “One of the keys to civic life in the Santa Clarita Valley is access to informative media products. Our arrangement means two trusted sources of local news – the Gazette and CCM – will remain intact and independent.”

Contacts

Beacon Advisors
Hud Englehart
312.860.0106

Contacts

Beacon Advisors
Hud Englehart
312.860.0106