A merger between two media giants leaves the fate of around a dozen Indiana newspapers in limbo.
Raycom Media is merging with Gray Television group, a media conglomerate based out of Atlanta.
Raycom purchased CNHI, an owner of more than 100 newspapers across 22 states, nine months ago. Now the merger with Gray Television groups leaves CNHI and its papers up for sale.
Hoosier State Press Association Executive Director Steven Key says it’s tough to predict what the future of the newspapers in Indiana will look like.
“You could have a situation where all the CNHI newspapers are purchased by one entity or there may be a situation where the demand and value of them may be grouping them in geographic areas,” Key says.
He says that CNHI newspapers were already running very lean and he doesn’t think there is much room for cutbacks.
“If there would be any kind of consolidation, I’m not sure it would be felt necessarily at the reporter levels,” he says.
Key says he thinks it will take several months before the papers in Indiana, which includes the Kokomo Tribune and the Tribune Star in Terre Haute, would be up for sale.