Freedom Communications sells 4 papers...

as rumors swirl about freedom properties, this comes out today:

The Telegraph in Alton, Ill., The Journal-Courier in Jacksonville, Ill., The Sedalia Democrat in Sedalia, Mo., and The Lima News in Lima, Ohio, all sold to Versa Capital Management


http://www.gazette.com/articles/four-138735-communications-parent.html

 

For a moment there, I thought this was about circulation.

 

Yeah, no need to brag.

 

I laughed out loud when I read this. Well-played, sir.

 

In Texas, The Monitor (McAllen), Valley Morning Star (Harlingen), Brownsville Herald and Mid-Valley Town Crier (Weslaco) were among other papers Freedom sold today.

 

That company is getting small quickly. The TV stations have been sold, as well. I think they're down to North Carolina, Florida, California, Colorado Springs and Yuma at this point.

 

Who is the new owner of those?

 

AIM Media Texas. This is evidently a new private equity group. One Jeremy Halbreich will be the CEO. He used to be at the Dallas Morning News and the Chicago Sun-Times.

And the Orange County Register says the group that bought the San Diego paper is in negotiations with Freedom for that paper. Does the Orange County paper have a nice office building the San Diego owners could sell to pay for the Register and then consolidate operations in San Diego or vice versa?

 

Does anyone know if this is good for the papers involved? I'm not familiar with Halbreich, but it seems the company headquarters will be in McAllen, while the owners are based in Dallas.

 

Freedom announced sale of N.C. and Fla. papers to Halifax.

http://www.newbernSportsJournalists.com/news/irvine-106899-journal-papers.html

 

Oh hell ... there's some good N.C. papers in that mix -- Burlington, Gaston Gazette, Shelby and others ...

 

Well, Daytona Beach's editor used to be the editorial director of Freedom's Florida papers, and prior to that he was the editor of one of Freedom's Florida dailies. So no real surprise there.