David Black, chairman and owner of Black Press, LTD of Victoria, British Columbia announced today that it has agreed to acquire the daily newspapers in Juneau and Kenai, Alaska from New Media Investment Group. Simultaneously, Black announced that his company has agreed to the sale of the Akron (OH) Beacon Journal to New Media Investment Group. No terms of the transactions were announced.
Rick O’Connor, president and CEO of Black Press said, “We have provided stewardship of the Beacon Journal for the past 11 years and are extremely proud of the quality of journalism and the role the newspaper plays in the community. However, the Beacon Journal is geographically located too far from our other publications for us to provide the kind of leadership the paper needs and community deserves. We think the Beacon Journal is a perfect fit for New Media’s growing cluster of North Central Ohio publications. We are also very excited to acquire the Alaska publications which will complement our publishing groups in Washington state and British Columbia.” Black Press publishes 100 community publications in BC and Alberta and 63 daily and community publications in Washington, California and Hawaii.
Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Black Press LTD in the transactions.
“New Media is very excited to add the Akron Beacon Journal and its associated publications to our portfolio of local media assets on North Central Ohio,” Michael E. Reed, New Media president and CEO, said in a written statement. “The Beacon Journal has been known for its strong and trusted journalism dating back to when James Knight owned the newspaper.
New Media is one of the largest publishers of locally based print and online media in the United States, publishing 145 daily publications and hundreds of community publications. New Media operates in over 570 markets across 38 states reaching over 22 million people on a weekly basis and serves approximately 215,000 business customers.