Closed N.H. paper sees hope of new ownership
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By SUSAN SMALLHEER Rutland Herald Staff - Published: July 17, 2009
The former general manager of Eagle Publications said Thursday that there was a possibility the Eagle-Times of Claremont, N.H., might reopen under new ownership.
Randy Yanick of Springfield, who lost his job last Thursday along with about 100 employees of the daily newspaper and its three other weekly publications, said he had been told by the owner of the bankrupt media company that there was interest in the newspaper group.
Yanick said Harvey Hill of Charlestown, the owner of Eagle Publications, had been told that there was interest in the newspaper, but Yanick said Hill was under court restrictions from talking about the inquiries or interest.
"It's up in the air whether Eagle Publications would be purchased," said Yanick. "I do know there are some people who are looking at buying the company," he said, adding that the source of his information was Hill.
Meanwhile, Yanick said, he was working with a "core group of managers" about starting a Claremont weekly.
Getting the financing, he said, will be the key.
"It's something we'd all like to chase," he said, while saying that restoring a daily newspaper to Claremont would probably be impossible. "It's a tough market," he said, and much smaller than nearby cities such as Rutland and Lebanon, N.H., home to the Rutland Herald and Valley News, respectively.
Hill filed for bankruptcy last Friday, saying that his family had been covering the paper's financial losses for a while and couldn't continue. He estimated his family's contribution as "into the seven figures."
Hill didn't respond to an e-mail inquiry. He closed the 175-year-old newspaper last Thursday, along with his weekly publications The Connecticut Valley Spectator of Lebanon, and The Message for the Week of Chester, as well as The Weekly Flea of Claremont, N.H., a classified advertising paper.
According to documents on file in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the newspaper group has somewhere between 200 to 999 creditors, and owes between $1 million and $10 million to its credits and has assets in the same vague financial category.
Eagle Publications filed for bankruptcy last Friday in U.S. District Court in Concord, N.H., and filed a Chapter 7 petition, which usually means liquidation, as opposed to reorganization.
The list of creditors, which stretches over 25 pages, includes dozens of names and local businesses, including dozens of employees, including Hill himself.
Yanick, who had been general manager for Eagle Publications since 2001, said the closing of the papers was a shock and surprise to him last Thursday as well.
Yanick said he was already working with a group of people who hope to start a weekly newspaper in Claremont.
And Robert F. Smith of Westminster, the co-editor of The Message, a free weekly newspaper, said he was also working with people who were interested in starting a replacement publication similar to The Message and he was keeping in close contact with his eight fellow employees.
"A lot of people have been in touch with me. Definitely, some people with a serious background are interested in continuing a publication like The Message," he said. "It never had hard news, it ran tons of features," he said.
The group is looking at "starting from scratch," he said, rather than buying The Message out of bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, a Virginia woman, who is a native of Claremont, and worked at the Eagle while she was a high school student, has launched a community news Web site, www.yourclaremontpress.com, and said Thursday that the Web site was welcoming community news, press releases and information.
Nancy Brown of Fredericksburg, Va., who runs several Web sites including www.yourmilitary.com, said she got the site up on Wednesday with several news stories, press releases from Claremont police and four obituaries.
"We started this on Sunday," Brown said, noting she had more than a dozen years running successful Web sites.
But Brown said the success of the new Web site would depend on local businesses and people supporting it. If there are no advertisements, it won't succeed, she said.
Brown said she hoped to hire one of the former Eagle reporters and several advertising reps.
She said she already had more than 90 friends on her Claremontpress.com Facebook page.
Smith, who worked at The Message for seven years editing, writing, laying out the paper and taking the publication's signature photographs, said losing his job was a shock. While he and others received their last paycheck this week, there are still questions about the employees' access to their 401k accounts, a view echoed by Yanick.
And employees, such as traveling ad salespeople, haven't been paid their expenses, Smith said.
"I signed up for unemployment," Smith said. "And we'll see what happens."
susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com
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