Mergers and Acquisitions Strategy for Consolidations: Roll Up, Roll Out and Innovate for Superior Growth and Returns

Chapter 1The Acquisition Imperative

“By the year 2023, newspapers will cease as a mass medium,” said Bill Diederich, chief financial officer of Landmark Communications, on a cloudy autumn afternoon in 1983.

“That’s preposterous,” said a newspaper executive. “That’s just 40 years from now, and it’s absurd to believe that could ever happen. Newspapers have never been stronger than they are today. Reaching almost every household, they are the most efficient advertising medium within local markets. Frankly, our industry’s profits are almost embarrassingly robust, and that kind of decline is simply unimaginable in such a short period of time. How could you possibly assert such an outrageous idea?”

“Just look at the circulation trends,” Diederich said ...