DALLAS — The balance of power at the Dallas Morning News is shifting as the conglomerate Hoffmann Family of Companies announced Saturday it purchased a stake in the daily newspaper's parent company.
In a news release issued Saturday, the family-owned conglomerate announced its purchase of a significant stake in DallasNews Corporation to become one of the company's top shareholders. The Dallas Morning News is the 14th-largest newspaper in the U.S.
HF Companies also recently acquired shares in Lee Enterprises, the fourth-largest newspaper chain in the country, to become its second-largest shareholder.
“I am focused on building a national presence in the newspaper industry," HF Companies Chairman David Hoffmann said in a statement. "Our group is impressed with the strategic vision of the management teams at both DallasNews Corp. and Lee Enterprises. In our team's assessment, both companies are successfully transitioning to sustainable digital business models while reducing exposure to their legacy print operations. This presents an attractive investment opportunity with these assets significantly exceeding current stock prices, among other favorable metrics."
This latest acquisition comes almost two months after a profile in the New York Times of Hoffmann, where he expressed his interest in buying a controlling stake in a newspaper.
In the profile, the 72-year-old said he believed print newspapers are "a key part of the American fabric."
“These local newspapers are really important to these communities,” Hoffmann told the New York Times. “With the digital age and technology, it’s changing rapidly. But I think there’s room for both, and we’d like to be a part of that.”
This recent shakeup comes just days after DallasNews Corporation ran into some trouble with Nasdaq in a possible delisting, according to the Dallas Business Journal.
