Parent company buys more papers including Daily Commercial in Leesburg
Headline Surfer photo / A dozen staffers have left the Daytona Beach News-Journal since the beginning of the year under the editorship of Pat Rice, as shown here, but that hasn't stopped parent company, Halifax Media Group, from acquiring more newspapers including the Daily Commercial in Leesburg.DAYTONA BEACH -- Apparently Daytona Beach News-Journal staffers leave faster than the newspaper's editor pays his speeding tickets. Six have left in the past several weeks.
It actually took News-Journal Editor Pat Rice 101 days to pay a speeding fine issued by Ormond Beach cops.
That is after Headline Surfer pointed out in a Jan. 15 write-up how Rice pleaded no contest in October to speeding, with his adjudication of guilt withheld pending payment of his fine. One hundred days had elapsed with no payment when Headline Surfer brought the matter to the attention of the public before Rice paid his debt to the Volusia County Clerk of the Court within 90 minutes of the published report.
This past week, four News-Journal editorial staffers informed Rice they were quitting. One of them, a sports copy editor, actually quit during his shift without a notice. Three others, including a newsroom reporter, gave Rice their two weeks notices.
These follow the departures last month of two senior night shift newsroom editors, one who quit and a second who was fired.
And these latest half dozen departures followed a half dozen earlier, including a longtime high school sports writer and the longest serving newsroom employee of them all, Kathy Kelly, a one-time managing editor, hired out of high school in 1963, who resigned from the News-Journal at the beginning of the year.
In all, a dozen editorial staffers have left the Daytona newspaper since the beginning of 2013, including former Publisher Ron Wallace, whose departure March 8 without a notice, was announced by the newspaper in a story headlined, "Ron Wallace resigns as News-Journal publisher."
Wallace was replaced Rob Van Epp, who was hired in January as the newspaper's controller and who had previously worked at the Houston Chronicle.
Then Van Epp went back to the controller's position and was replaced by the July 31 hiring of Bill Offill as the publisher. Offill had previously worked as publisher of the Beaumont Enterprise in Beaumont, Texas.
The News-Journal departures aren't stopping the parent company -- Halifax Media headed by Michael Redding from acquiring three more Florida newspapers -- the Daily Commercial of Leesburg, the News-Sun of Sebring, and the South Lake Press of Clermont.
In fact, Redding's former company, HarborPoint Media, owns these three newspapers, the Daily Commercial, a 7-day daily that covers Lake County; the News-Sun three times a week and the South Lake Press, published weekly.
Russell Denson, a HarborPoint director, told the News-Journal in a recently-published story that he believed Redding's Halifax Media Group's acquisition of the three papers "is a good home for our employees."
Details of the acquisition, including the purchase price, were not disclosed, by Halifax Media, with the deal expected to be consummated by Sept. 30.
Halifax Media Group is based in Daytona Beach, and includes 33 newspapers primarily in Florida and four other states in the Southeast. The company’s investment group includes Stephens Capital Partners, JAARSSS Media, and Redding Investments.
Redding divested his holdings in HarborPoint when he was able to work out a deal to acquire the News-Journal in a federal court-appointed fire-sale after the Davidson family lost a court battle with former minority partner Cox Enterprises of Atlanta over the value of its shares.
Most of Halifax Media's acquisitions were in December 2011, when Redding's group paid $143 million in cash to acquire 16 Southeastern newspapers from The New York Times. In Florida, those papers include the Sarasota Herald Tribune, the Star-Banner in Ocala, The Ledger in Lakeland, the Gainesville Sun and the News Chief in Winter Haven.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal, which was worth $300 million in 2006, was sold to Redding's group for $20 million in March 2010, after the newspaper shed half of its 800 employees, mostly under an interim receiver appointed by the court to oversee a sale.
Lawyers for the Davidson's had asked for a delay of the sale to allow the economy to improve. But Orlando-based U.S. District Judge John Antoon II said there was no evidence the newspaper would bring a higher price if the sale was delayed, calling the acquisition by Halifax Media ”fair and reasonable and appropriate.”