Clarity Media Group announced on Thursday plans to close the Baltimore Examiner newspaper and will publish its last edition on February 15th. The Denver-based media group reluctantly concluded that it had to close the publication after several months of unsuccessfully seeking a buyer for the newspaper. Instead, the company will increase investments in other operations.
CEO Ryan McKibben met with employees of the Baltimore Examiner on Thursday morning to inform them of the decision. McKibben explained that a key business assumption behind launching the Baltimore Examiner was that strong revenue synergies could be developed because of its market proximity to the Washington Examiner. "Unfortunately," according to McKibben, " those additional revenues did not materialize to the levels we had projected. "
McKibben characterized Clarity Media Group as a "patient investor" - encouraged by the manner in which Baltimore Examiner employees had built the newspaper into a strong and well regarded organization. However, the nation's deepening recession made it clear that the "synergistic" revenue that was a key element of the Baltimore Examiner's business plan, would not be achieved in the foreseeable future.
As a consequence, McKibben said, "It is not possible to maintain two major daily newspapers within a 50 mile distance and do justice to both publications
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