LITTLE ROCK – A local satire news outlet announced late Wednesday night their intention to buy Arkansas’ largest daily newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, shortly after the owners won the Powerball lottery jackpot.
Rock City Times will become the largest media outlet in the state after quickly negotiating a deal to purchase the paper after the winning numbers were announced. The final purchase price has not been disclosed, but sources close to the purchase tell us that it is around $75 million.
“We gave it a lot of thought, about 35 seconds, and decided we wanted to build a media empire,” Rock City Times’s owner Greg Henderson tells us. “I gave Walter Hussman a call and we started talking numbers.”
Henderson tells subscribers to expect immediate changes to the paper including the removal of the Democrat Gazette website’s paywall and a possible name change to the Gazette.
The Powerball’s $227 million cash payout jackpot is expected to to pay around $155 million after taxes. Henderson says he has no immediate plans for the remainder of the money, but would consider purchasing additional smaller media outlets.
“We would love to make all media in the state as unreliable as possible. We will try to grow our reach through partnerships and acquisitions as much as possible. Eventually no one will believe the news, then we all win.” Henderson tells us.
3 Comments
>> So, doesn’t this now make RCT Arkansas’ 1st Most Unreliable News Source?
If you’re looking for inexpensive news outlets to purchase, I’d suggest Fox “News”. It isn’t worth a nickel.
What’s going to change?