Twenty-five publications in the US states of Ohio and Indiana will change hands next month following a deal between HD Media and two AIM Media businesses.
Dirks, Van Essen & April represented AIM Media in the transaction, terms of which were not disclosed.
Managing partner of HD Media Doug Reynolds said his company was not “buying newspapers because we’re nostalgic for the way the world used to be”, but because he believed "community newspapers have a future.”
President Phil Perry said they “found a partner” in vendor AIM Media when purchasing the Daily Times in Portsmouth (pictured), three years ago, and as that relationship grew stronger, felt comfortable negotiating a large acquisition like this with them.
Reynolds added that while his company could provide the resources of a larger organisation, “these newspapers must continue to belong to the communities they serve”.
Included are 19 Ohio publications – the Lima News, Sidney Daily News, Miami Valley Today, Bryan Times, Sentinel-Tribune, Urbana Daily Citizen, Wilmington News Journal, Northwest Signal, Daily Advocate and Early Bird, Xenia Daily Gazette, Record Herald, Delaware Gazette, Times-Gazette, Register-Herald, Morrow County Sentinel, Galion Inquirer, Fairborn Daily Herald, and Beavercreek News-Current – and six in Indiana, the (Columbus) Republic, (Franklin) Daily Journal, (Greenfield) Daily Reporter, (Seymour) Tribune, (Nashville) Brown County Democrat, and (Pendleton) Times-Post.
Headquartered in Charleston, HD Media currently operates ten newspapers in West Virginia and Ohio. AIM Media Management, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, will continue to own and operate its Texas publications following the transaction.