NEW YORK – New Media Investment Group Inc. has reached an agreement to purchase all of the publishing operations and assets of the family-owned Columbus Dispatch in Ohio.
The Columbus Dispatch has a daily and Sunday circulation of more than 130,000 and 235,000, respectively.
New Media Investment Group Inc.’s subsidiary, Gatehouse Media, owns the Providence Journal.
In a statement, Michael E. Reed, New Media’s president and CEO said, “We are very excited to announce the proposed transaction to acquire The Columbus Dispatch, along with its weekly newspapers, magazines and distribution company. The newspaper, first published in 1871, is the sole daily newspaper in its market, and is the trusted source for comprehensive local news, politics, sports and entertainment coverage across central Ohio.”
The paper has been owned and operated by the Wolfe family for more than 100 years, according to a news release about the purchase.
“The decision to sell The Dispatch and its sister publications was extraordinarily difficult, but the past two decades of accelerating change in the newspaper industry made it increasingly clear that the best chance of preserving The Dispatch well into the future is to align it with a much larger and more diversified newspaper enterprise,” Michael Fiorile, president and CEO of The Columbus Dispatch, said in a statement.
New Media intends to fund the acquisition with a combination of cash on the balance sheet and an incremental $25 million on the company’s existing term loan. New Media anticipates the deal will close in the second quarter. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
