By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
Packet Media Group, which includes The Princeton Packet and Packet Publications, is for sale as owner James B. Kilgore prepares for retirement.
The 63-year-old Princetonian has been in publishing for 37 years and at The Packet for 35 years, 31 as publisher. He did not announce a specific date for his retirement, but would like to see it happen in the next three to six months.
He is looking to sell the company and eventually the real estate on Witherspoon Street, where the company offices are located.
”I think it’s better to have a new owner put his own imprint on the company, but I’m willing to be involved in an advisory role,” said Mr. Kilgore. “I think someone could find new ways to improve what we do.”
”Part of community publishing is the community service aspect and that’s the rewarding part of it,” he said. “You have an impact and I feel the publisher should be there in the background while the reporters and editors cover and write editorials that promote change. Someone new who wants be active in molding issues and actions by the community is important.”
Packet Media Group is solely owned by Mr. Kilgore’s family and overseen by a board of directors. Mr. Kilgore is the president of 11 paid community newspapers, seven free newspapers, a monthly magazine and a series of local-news-based websites.
The company has been in the Kilgore family since 1955 when Mr. Kilgore’s father, Barney Kilgore, who was credited for the success of the Wall Street Journal, bought his hometown paper and proceeded to expand, adding five titles.
The Packet’s subscribers, readers and advertisers should not see any major changes during the sale process and the business of reporting the news will go on with the same quality the community has come to expect, said Mr. Kilgore.
The owner is looking to sell now to begin a succession plan, due in part to a recent health scare.
”You start to think, what would happen if something happened to me and the family. You’ve got to begin the process some time,” he said. “You have to start to plan. I’ve worked here a lot. My family doesn’t see me much.”
He is looking for a local owner to continue the community newspaper publishing business.
”Ideally someone who lives in the core of our market,” he said, “or someone who used to live here and they have some attachment to the community. You want to find the right fit. There are people that want to own a newspaper.”
The Princeton Packet has been published since 1786 under several different names and titles. It has been published as The Princeton Packet since 1916.
Mr. Kilgore considered his decision for a year before making the announcement on Thursday morning.
Before making the public announcement, Mr. Kilgore broke the news to his 111 employees.
”Some people were nervous about our employees, but I wasn’t,” he said. “I’ve always been honest and forthright. There could be an opportunity here for something better.”
The business and property can be purchased together or separately, depending upon what a new owner would want to do.
According to the tax assessor, the Packet properties are worth more than $3.3 million, with the largest being the 1.16-acre main office parcel assessed at $1,866,700. There are four other properties in the company’s holdings, three adjacent Witherspoon Street properties with offices and a small lot on Birch Avenue.
”This is probably not the best and highest use for the site,” he said of his property next to Community Park Elementary School. “Someone from Princeton might say ‘I like the property and I’m willing to pay market value for the real estate and the business,’ you want to keep that open,” he said. “Some operator here might say our press or whatever should be in a different building and we’re going to upgrade this and move to a different location.”
The business is being offered first, so the real estate can be an option to tie into that sale.
”Whoever takes the business over will have the option to stay here a while if they didn’t want the real estate,” he added.
Mr. Kilgore has hired Dirks, Van Essen and Murray, a newspaper brokerage firm, to help search for a buyer and facilitate the sale. He used this firm when he bought his siblings’ share of the company in 1999. His teenage children, still in high school, have not yet expressed an interest in the news business, he said.
He would like the company sold as a whole, but is not opposed to selling the publications piecemeal.
”That’s not the preferred method, that’s not how it will be presented,” said Mr. Kilgore. “The power is in the printing and infrastructure of the combination selling and cross selling each one.”
The news industry is facing similar recessionary pressures as other markets, said John Kinney, a former publisher and president of John Kinney & Associates, a media management consultant hired by Packet Media Group.
”We’re the community segment,” he said. “As a segment of a larger piece we are doing better because we are connected to local people.”
”Our bread and butter is the local market and the local business person,” said Mr. Kilgore.
Community journalism and non-daily papers are different than the larger daily publications because the news is hyper local and features specialized coverage from reliable sources that can’t be found at larger publications.
”Most of the good, accurate news people get off the Internet originated with newspaper organizations,” said Mr. Kinney. “This isn’t a bunch of people sitting at their computer writing a blog, these are trained professionals who go out, research a story, write it. That story is then vetted by an editor and published and printed online.”
The company is being repositioned from Packet Publications to Packet Media, said Brad Koltz, general manager.
”That’s a very intentional repositioning going on,” he said. “That’s part of the process expanding, broadening and deepening what our revenue base is, what our readership base is and creating of what the future of this company is going to be in relation to the communities we serve.”
Mr. Koltz, also a Princeton resident who has spent his career in journalism, has expressed interest in buying the company. He has been meeting with local banks about financing and working with equity options to keep the Packet local.
”I’m prepared to put significant money into the purchase,” he said.
If no buyer is found, Mr. Kilgore stated he would retain ownership of the company. He may then consider selling the property and moving the Packet elsewhere.
”We would still have some presence in Princeton if that were to happen,” he said. “Also, here we have excess office space and more space than we are using.”
There is no specific timeframe for the sale and transition.
After exiting the news business, Mr. Kilgore will continue his involvement with the Princeton community and explore his other business ventures.
