Al Diamon
Irving Looks at Blethen
On Sept. 3 and 4, representatives of Brunswick News Inc. toured the Portland Press Herald’s facilities, prompting speculation that the Canadian company is interested in buying the Blethen Maine Newspapers. Blethen is trying to sell its Maine holdings, which include dailies in Portland, Augusta and Waterville, as well as other media properties.
Brunswick News owns three dailies and 14 weeklies in New Brunswick, a majority of the English-language media in that province. It also owns 7 French-language weeklies.
Brunswick News is owned by J.K. Irving, one of three brothers who control the Irving group of companies, a privately held conglomerate that, according to the Canadian Press, operates 300 businesses, ranging from oil refineries and shipbuilding to food processing, transportation and forestry. In Maine, Irving owns or manages about 1.5 million acres of forest land and employs 550 people at a saw mill and other operations in Dixfield. The company recently leased its convenience stores in the state to a Canadian firm, Alimentation Couche-Tard.
While much of the Irving empire is separate from J.K. Irving’s media holdings, that hasn’t prevented claims of bias in the newspapers’ coverage of disputes involving Irving and its labor unions, environmental policies and confrontations with competitors.
During 2006 hearings before a committee appointed by the Canadian Senate, the media company was described by witnesses as “ruthless” and its management as “hard-nosed, anti-union.”
The committee concluded, “The Irvings’ corporate interests form an industrial-media complex that dominates [New Brunswick].”
The Irving companies have been involved in their share of controversies in Maine, including a bitter labor dispute with loggers in 2003, a protracted court battle over back taxes in 2005 and continuing questions about forest practices.
Al Diamon can be e-mailed at aldiamon@herniahill.net.
Posted on Friday, September 5, 2008 in Permalink
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Reader Comments:
Not much money there, IMHO.
Money for whom, last poster? The Irving empire is huge and monied. They have plenty of $$$ to buy the newspapers — I think the question would be whether there is enough revenue in the product to make it worthwhile for the Irvings to buy Blethen Maine.
They're not known to be lavish spenders or to squander money without a great deal of homework.
The Blethens perp-walked the union-hating/baiting Irving folks through the PPH simply to scare the bejesus out of the union. If the union turtles and gives in to Belethen demands that will soften up the ground for Rich Connors et al.
Irving empire? Really. New Brunswick is hardly the New York City of Canada, with the sort of funding that makes the Toronto Globe and Mail a great read every day. Irving was founded by an used car salesman, so it is no great Canadian industrial concern. Monied? By what definition do you say they have "plenty of $$$"? As far as I can see, Irving is a second-rate operation sort of like the one run by Conrad Black, another expatriate now enjoying life in a Florida jail cell.
Monied? Canada? BWAHAHAHAHAHA
Leveraged Loonies Love Portland.
Irving is going to pay off with tins of maple syrup, Eh?
Looks like the PPH was ahead of the curve. NYT is combining sections.
http://gawker.com/5046062/times-ends-solo-metro-sports-sections
The Irving brothers have a net worth of about $5.65 Billion. They can pick up the Blethen papers with pocket change if they decide it's in their interest to do so.
Hooray, guess that means they want to locate the new oil refinery (first in 25 years to be built in North America) in Portland. Means more jobs here.