So, we know that in 2007 the Macquarie Group in AUSTRALIA bought out AMERICAN Consolidated Media. (anyone besides me see the irony of a foreign company owning a company with AMERICAN in the name?) One of Macquarie's purchases included the Glen Rose Reporter, and they now own about 100 local newspapers in 10 states.

Today, the Dallas Morning News has an article that indicates that Jeremy Halbreich of ACM LLC has stepped down as chairman, president and CEO. He DID organize a new holding company American Consolidated VENTURES LLC that is going to look for fresh opportunities in the media business.

So, what happened? I can't believe that he stepped down as CEO of his own volition but that Macquarier thought that was a good idea.

We have entered into a period of intense and disruptive change impacting the newspaper industry and across most other media segments and I believe the current environment presents a range of unique, exciting and highly opportunistic possibilities,” Mr. Halbreich said.

He does say he's been planning this all along

"I have been planning this transition of my role and responsibilities at ACM since the February 2007 sale of the company to MMG," Halbreich said in a statement. "Almost 18 months ago, I made a commitment to the new owners to successfully execute the ale transaction in early 2007, support and assist them to rapidly expand the company's holdings of local, community newspapers in the U.S. and concurrently transition our operations to work smoothly under the umbrella of the publicly traded company based in Sydney."

Here's a recent article about Macquarie Media

Deteriorating US economic conditions dampened revenue from newspapers there in 2007/08 by 1.8 per cent as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell 5.6 per cent.

Mr Dorney said the US operation, American Consolidated Media, had performed "relatively well'' and flagged cost cuts to adapt to the tougher environment.

He said that small market US newspapers were better placed than metropolitan rivals, given their more direct exposure to local economies.

Macquarie Media has $325 million in cash, plus some undrawn debt, to spend on capital management or acquisitions in OECD or OECD-like countries.

In the US, MMG said it had reached its goal of achieving critical mass by becoming the country's fifth-largest publisher of regional newspapers.