Talk:Omaha World-Herald

McCarthy Group ownership

From 1987 until 2011, ES&S's primary owners were the Omaha World-Herald and McCarthy Group; in 2011, the World-Herald sold its shares to the Group, making it the majority owner. However, Bev Harris uncovered in 2002 that the McCarthy Group was actually owned by World Investments, a subsidiary of the World-Herald. This tangled ownership web gives the Omaha World-Herald a much more significant role in ES&S's ownership. So it's worth investigating how long they owned the McCarthy Group, how large the share was, and if they still own it.

John Gottschalk, president, CEO, and publisher from 1989 to 2007, has sat on the boards of both the McCarthy Group and ES&S. He still sits on both boards to this day. Gottschalk's goal was diversifying the World-Herald away from the newspaper business to its other investments. So it's plausible that the World-Herald acquired an investment in the McCarthy Group around the early 1990s. But the ownership history/details deserve a more in-depth investigation.