October 10, 2021

106 With 27 community papers meet Cherry Road Media

30 minutes

In September of 2021, Cherry Road Media, a Parsippany, New Jersey-based technology company, announced it had acquired 20 newspapers from the Gannett company, bringing their total count of publications owned to 27. Their list of titles now stretches across seven states: Kansas, Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and Alabama.

Cherry Road CEO Jeremy Gulban stated in a recent press release that "This was his way to give back to local communities by supporting media houses that add so much value to our daily lives but are suffering the brunt of a digital age by losing subscriptions."

In the October 2021 E&P cover story entitled: "Under New Management," Sara April, from Dirks, Van Essen & April, the media merger and acquisition firm that represented Gannett in the sale of the 20 properties to Gulban, described the current mergers-and-acquisition landscape as "dynamic," noting that buyer trends have changed in the past three years. April stated: "Before that, the industry saw a lot of large corporate owners buying newspapers. Then, just a few years later, some of those organizations, including Gannett, are now selling off some of them, especially local titles."

In this 107th episode of "E&P Reports," Publisher Mike Blinder interviews Cherry Road's CEO Jeremy Gulban about why his technology company is "all-in" with newspaper ownership and his plans for managing their 27 local publications. And does his future include more growth in the news publishing industry? Also appearing in this episode is Sara April, from Dirks, Van Essen & April, who talks about the recent sale and offers her perspective on the current mergers & acquisition landscape for both buyers and sellers.

Newspapers owned by Cherry Road Media now include: