Report: RG sale was for $14.25 million

Figure in quarterly report may not reflect final price

RG publisher Logan Molen’s farewell column

The sale of The Register-Guard to GateHouse Media came in exchange for $14.25 million, according to a fourth-quarter financial report posted online Feb. 28 by the holding company that owns GateHouse.

GateHouse is a holding company owned by New Media Investment Group, which compiled the report in advance of the closing of the RG sale on March 1, so the figure may be preliminary. Among business highlights for the fourth quarter of 2017, the three months ending Dec. 31, the company listed “anticipated closing of the acquisition of the Eugene, OR Register-Guard in the first quarter for $14.25 million.”

Neither GateHouse nor members of the Baker family, which has owned the Eugene newspaper for 91 years, have divulged terms of the sale. Sources have told Eugene Weekly that any cash changing hands in the sale is earmarked for pension and retirement obligations to former employees and will not go to family members.

Meanwhile, the Feb. 28 edition of The RG — the last issue under control of the Baker family — announces the departure of publisher Logan Molen and includes a full-page advertisement from Tony Baker, chairman of Guard Publishing Company, thanking the paper’s many employees for their work and the greater Eugene community for its support.