Alabama newspaper goes nonprofit to avoid consolidation
From Monday, December 16, 2002
The owners of the Anniston Star, a small NE Alabama newspaper with a circulation of 28,000, are planning a complex maneuver to ensure its long-term independence and local ownership. Soon the newspaper will be owned by a nonprofit foundation that is being set up to fund a training institute for journalists and to avoid the newspaper's consolidation into one of the mega-media companies according to this New York Times story (registration required):
Mr. Ayers, 67, said he had no interest in selling The Star and three smaller newspapers owned by the Consolidated Publishing Company. The company is jointly owned by Mr. Ayers and his sister, Elise Ayers Sanguinetti.
He said the $50 million he might get for selling his share would be "more money than I could spend or give away in a lifetime."
"And it wouldn't be much fun," he said.