A14 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2019
EO Media Group buys Bend Bulletin
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
The auction lasted 15
minutes Monday and ended
with the EO Media Group
buying the Bend Bulletin.
The $3.65 million win-
ning bid also covered the
price for the Bulletin’s sis-
ter newspaper, the Redmond
Spokesman.
EO Media Group beat
two out-of-state compet-
itors, Adams Publishing
Group out of Greeneville,
Tennessee, and Rhode Island
Suburban Newspapers Inc.,
which did not send a repre-
sentative to the auction but
made almost $68,000 on the
sale.
Heidi Wright, EO Media
Group’s chief operating offi-
cer, said the the company
appreciates the opportunity
to continue Oregon own-
ership of The Bulletin and
Redmond Spokesman.
“It’s reassuring for the
future of community news-
papers when a small inde-
pendent company like EO
Media Group can prevail,
even when going up against
the big companies that are
buying up newspapers non-
stop around the country,”
she said.
Western
Communica-
tions, the Bulletin’s for-
mer parent company, filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection in January and is
selling all of its assets. EO
Media Group bought two of
those assets in June at auc-
tion — The Observer in
La Grande and the Baker
City Herald. The Bulle-
tin and Spokesman acquisi-
tions brings the company’s
total number of newspapers
and journals to 14. Wright
explained why the purchases
make sense for the fami-
ly-owned business.
“First, the vibrant econ-
omy of Central Oregon,
coupled with a fresh start for
The Bulletin and Redmond
Spokesman, bodes well for
Bend Bulletin Photo, File
The EO Media Group put in a winning bid of $3.65 million Monday to acquire the Bend Bulletin and the Redmond Spokesman.
The successful bid beat out and Adams Publishing Group out of Greeneville, Tennessee, and Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers
Inc., which did not send a representative to the auction.
“First, the vibrant
economy of Central
Oregon, coupled
with a fresh start
for The Bulletin
and Redmond
Spokesman, bodes
well for the future of
these newspapers”
Heidi Wright,
EO Media Group’s
chief operating officer
the future of these newspa-
pers,” she said. “Second,
we believe readers in Cen-
tral Oregon will support our
mission of producing con-
tent that is relevant, credible
and reflective of the commu-
nities we serve.”
Kathryn B. Brown, vice
president of EO Media
Group, credited Bend locals
for support.
“We appreciate the assis-
tance of so many in the Bend
community who encouraged
us to consider the acquisi-
tion of The Bulletin and the
Redmond Spokesman, and
who were willing to support
us in our efforts,” she said.
“It quickly became clear to
our board that these newspa-
pers are an excellent invest-
ment for our company, and
are a good fit with our oper-
ations throughout Oregon.”
Bend Mayor Sally Rus-
sell in a letter expressed her
personal support for the EO
Media Group to prevail.
“Balanced, factual, local
reporting is invaluable for
the healthy community I
am committed to helping
grow and thrive,” she said.
“I believe that among the
bidders that have identified,
EOMG is the only one that
offers the local perspective
I feel is so critical. Our city
would not be well-served
by having our local, daily
newspaper controlled by
absentee managers of huge
conglomerates whose only
commitment to our city is
financial.”
Some Bend supporters
provided financial backing,
including The Bend Founda-
tion. Trustee Mike Hollern,
said the nonprofit views this
as a worthy investment in a
company with a long history
in Oregon delivering valu-
able news.
“That’s a really important
part of the whole American
dream to have an unbiased
local press,” he said.
He also said he could
not speak for other inves-
tors, but the Bend Founda-
tion does not have an edito-
rial stake in this action.
Steve Forrester, EO
Media Group president and
CEO, said the purchase
marks more than the begin-
ning of a new publishing
venture.
“For our family owner-
ship, acquisition of the Bend
Bulletin also carries emo-
tional and historical mean-
ing,” he said. “The friend-
ship between the Chandler
family and the Forrest-
er-Bedford-Brown
fami-
lies goes back more than 50
years. Our essential chal-
lenge is to bring new life
to Bend’s storied daily
newspaper.”
Adams Publishing owns
more than a hundred small
dailies, weeklies and shop-
pers, including the Herald &
News in Klamath Falls and
the Lake County Examiner
in Lakeview.
Emily Cureton with Ore-
gon Public Broadcasting
reported Rhode Island Sub-
urban Newspapers Inc., or
RISN, owns newspapers in
Rhode Island, Arizona and
California, and dozens of
the businesses use the same
address on regulatory paper-
work — an office suite in a
strip mall in rural Illinois.
Corporate filings show
the humble office space is
connected to Horizon Publi-
cations, a subsidiary of bank-
rupt conglomerate Hollinger
Inc., once one of the larg-
est media companies in the
world. Hollinger became
infamous in the mid-2000s
for the scale and scope of
theft committed by its exec-
utives, according to OPB.
An investigation on behalf
of shareholders and submit-
ted to the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission
found Hollinger executives
siphoned more than $400
million from their compa-
nies, largely by collecting
fees on bogus non-compete
contracts.
That led to fraud convic-
tions in 2007 for Hollinger
leaders Conrad Black and
F. David Radler. A key
Hollinger executive impli-
cated in some of the trans-
actions, Roland McBride, is
the vice president of RISN.
According to court doc-
uments, RISN negotiated a
$67,500 “break-up fee” with
Western Communications
to induce RISN to summit
a bid within a certain time
frame, and RISN as the first
bidder “acted as a catalyst
or ‘stalking horse’ to attract
higher and better offers” for
the Bend newspaper and
thus deserves payment for
maximizing the sale. The
sale proceeds will cover the
cost of the fee.
The bidding started with
the EO Media Group’s $2.5
million. Wright helmed the
company’s bidding against
Mark Adams, president and
CEO of Adams Publish-
ing. RISN sent no one to the
auction.
Brown said most of the
bids went up in $50,000
increments, and at $3.65
million Adams was out and
told the EO team congrat-
ulations. U.S. Bankruptcy
Court Judge Trish Brown
approved the sale during a
hearing following the auc-
tion. She also gave until Aug.
12 for unsecured creditors
to oppose RISN’s break-up
fee. If no one comes for-
ward, the company collects
the money.
The purchase includes
the printing press and equip-
ment in Bend but not the
building or property. Kath-
ryn Brown said EO Media
would lease the site for the
time being and look for
new space. She also said
EO Media will look at how
to fold the Central Oregon
papers into the organization
and soon will reach out to
the employees at the Bulle-
tin and Spokesman.
Kathryn Brown said they
aim to close the deal by the
end of August.