A couple of weeks back we were reporting that changing its press was set to save the Dallas Morning News US$5 million (A$7.66 million) a year, enabling it to move to smaller premises and reduce staff numbers.

This week, all bets are off with the news that US giant Hearst was buying the paper, ending 140 years of local ownership.

It’s a massive change of direction: For the past year engineers from Impressions Worldwide have been working to install two lines of single-width Goss Community – 12 four-colour towers – in a new smaller factory in Carrollton, Texas, in a carefully-costed US$8 million (A$12.27 million) re-equipment project.

Now production arrangements are reportedly under review again following the agreement to sell the paper for US$75 million (US$114.86 million) to Hearst, which already owns newspapers in Houston, San Antonio and Austin, the state’s three other largest markets. Of these, it paid an estimated US$70 million to acquire the Austin American-Statesman from Gannett in February.

The sale leaves only two remaining public companies, Gannett and Lee, in the local newspaper business.

There have been a variety of takes on the move, some bitter, others positive.

Newspaper industry analyst turned digital publisher Ken Doctor, says the single-company ownership will be “really something”, talking of the “relatively bright prospects” in Dallas, as a contrast to the sales of other publicly-owned chains and individual papers – he mentions Tribune, McClatchy and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat – to private investment funds including Alden Global Capital. Hearst’s approach has been somewhat different, gathering papers including in Connecticut, and through its ownership of the San Francisco Chronicle.

There have been changes over the years at the Dallas Morning News, not all of them positive.

Wine writer Jeff Siegel (in the Dallas Observer) recalls being at the Dallas Times Herald in 1991, when it was bought by the News and closed. “And I'm still bitter,” he says.

He may be missing the point. The News, in its Belo days, may have been trying to do just what Hearst still seeks to achieve in a near-impossible situation... and was still trying. This week’s sale may just be a pragmatic acknowledgement of reality.

Hearst brings the scale of a global, diversified information, services and media company. A diverse portfolio includes financial services leader Fitch, the Hearst Health medical information and services businesses, Hearst Transportation, and a software company focussed on maintainance of jets and helicopters.

With 35 TV stations, it has assembled a collection of leading US newspapers including the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and Times Union (Albany), as well as digital services businesses and more than 200 magazine editions

I hope there’s still a future for the press, itself a realistic approach to what the future holds in store for print publishers.

Peter Coleman

Top: The News’ Plano print facility, which went on the market last year ahead of commissioning of the new press