Content area
Full Text
The Idaho Business Review has been purchased by Dolan Media Co., a Minneapolis-based chain of business newspapers and market-specific legal and business information products.
The sale for an undisclosed amount of cash by co-owners Carl A. Miller and Catherine D. "Kitty" Fleischman, who founded the paper in 1984, took effect Jan. 1.
Miller, 60, will retire at the end of January. Fleischman, 50, will remain with Dolan Media in an advertising-development role. Current Business Review employees will remain on staff, and there will be no immediate changes in the newspaper.
An interim publisher, Robert Ambrogi, was to assume management responsibilities Jan. 4. He is to be succeeded by a permanent publisher, to be named in about a month.
James P. Dolan, president and CEO of Dolan Media, said the company had had its eye on The Idaho Business Review for some time. The purchase agreement was signed Dec. 18 after about eight months of negotiations, he said. While the format of the IBR--a general business newspaper published weekly--is not likely to change markedly, Dolan expects to make the paper a platform for the launch of other information products.
"Everything starts with the editorial product," said Dolan, who founded Dolan Media in 1992 following experience in journalism and investment banking. He termed The Idaho Business Review "a terrific editorial product."
"It's a good paper ... it's not broken, and it doesn't need to be fixed," Dolan said in an interview. "For the first six months or so, there will be no changes except for minor tweaks."
Staff additions on both the advertising and editorial sides of the paper are likely, he said, while back-office functions such as accounting will be transferred to the company's Minneapolis headquarters.
"The intent is to free everyone in Boise to do the basic things the best they can, and not be cluttered with paperwork," he said.
Dolan Media, which has been in an expansion mode for several years, fields business or financial papers and related information services in a dozen markets, including Minneapolis-St. Paul; Milwaukee, Wis.; Madison, Wis.; St. Louis; Oklahoma City; Norfolk, Va.; Rochester, N.Y.; Long Island, N.Y.; and Portland, Ore.-Vancouver, Wash.