Posted on 06/26/2006 12:53:36 PM PDT by SmithL
Allentown, Pa. -- The smallest city in United States with two independent, paid daily newspapers will stay that way, at least for now.
McClatchy Co. said Monday it has found a buyer for the last of the Knight Ridder Inc. papers it planned to divest, agreeing to sell the Times Leader of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. to a consortium of private investors.
Richard L. Connor, who was editor and publisher of the Times Leader during a crippling newspaper strike almost three decades ago, plans to purchase the newspaper in conjunction with a group of local investors and HM Capital Partners LLC, a Dallas investment fund.
Terms were not disclosed at the request of the buyers, McClatchy said.
The deal will keep Wilkes-Barre, a northeastern Pennsylvania city of about 40,000, as a two-newspaper town. Times Leader employees had worried that the newspaper would be sold to the parent company of The Citizens' Voice, a rival daily.
"This sale represents a win for all the stakeholders: readers, advertisers, employees and the community of Wilkes-Barre," Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chief executive officer, said in a statement. "We were particularly pleased to find buyers with community roots and direct experience with the Times Leader."
McClatchy said it had sold the 12 papers for a total of about $2.1 billion, which the company will use to pay down debt from the Knight Ridder acquisition.
Knight Ridder Inc. shareholders approved the company's sale to McClatchy on Monday.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Now if the McClatchy's will divest themselves from ownership of the Pittsburgh Pirates, then I'll be happy.
Who bought the St. Paul paper ?
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