Lofty Newspaper Project Is Closed After Two Years

It started as a way to solve one of the thorniest problems in the newspaper industry -- how to transition from the high margins yet declining circulation of print to the less profitable but fast-growing readership of the web. But Project Thunderdome, an ambitious, centralized effort to provide national and foreign articles to the 75 newsrooms owned by Digital First Media, will now close, said the company’s chief executive, John Paton.

Digital First’s newspaper holdings include The Denver Post, The Detroit News and The Salt Lake Tribune. More than 50 people at Project Thunderdome’s New York headquarters will lose their jobs, he said, and more layoffs are likely as part of a broader restructuring. When asked whether the moves signaled that Digital First’s owner, the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, might sell the newspapers, Paton said “no decisions have been made.” The project, which was introduced two years ago, was canceled in part to cut costs and in part because “local is where it’s buttered,” he said.