Here is a must-read story for all of Berks County about the decline and recovery of an award-winning community newspaper. So much coincidence in this story from The Boston Globe about The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass.
Yes, another local newspaper called the Eagle. The similarities in the names of Berkshire County and Berks County. Family ownership that made a large investment, which was followed by economic problems.
The Berkshire Eagle bought and renovated an old mill to house the newspaper and other businesses in 1987, just as the stock market crashed. The Reading Eagle purchased a new printing press and built a distribution center in 2008, just as the great recession hit.
In both cases, serious financial problems resulted in the purchase of the company by MediaNews Group, formerly called Digital First Media, and now a subsidiary of New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital, which has “a track record of buying beleaguered papers and slashing costs to raise profits,” according to the story in The Boston Globe.
The Berkshire Eagle felt the effects of that model after its sale to MNG in 1995. The Reading Eagle is about to experience that after its recent bankruptcy purchase by the same MediaNews Group.
But in 2016, The Berkshire Eagle was purchased from MNG by a local group led by a retired judge, and now is having success in restoring a very important community asset.
Maybe there is hope for the Reading Eagle. Maybe someday.
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