Argent media buys 2 state newspapers

A newly formed company has purchased the Forrest City Times-Herald and the Marianna CourierIndex, the publisher of the papers said Thursday.

The buyer, Argent Arkansas News Media, is affiliated with other companies that own and operate more than 175 publications in the United States and Canada.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Times-Herald Publishing Co. decided to sell the papers because of “shrinking revenues and increasing costs,” publisher Weston Lewey said.

“It wasn’t profitable anymore,” Lewey said. “It’s very, very difficult in today’s environment for a small independent newspaper to remain so.”

The papers have been in Lewey’s family since 1942, she said.

Roland McBride, an officer with Argent, said no immediate changes are planned at the newspapers.