Acquisitions
Street Media LLC, parent company of the Village Voice, LA Weekly, Irvine Weekly and the Bay Area Marina Times, has announced the acquisition of The Laker/lutz News, a weekly community newspaper and website serving the growing suburban markets of Pasco and north Hillsborough counties in Tampa Bay, Florida. The Laker/lutz News reaches more than 150,000 readers and followers with its print and digital products in Lutz, Odessa, Land O’lakes, Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills, Dade City and San Antonio. Diane Kortus, the former publisher and owner, is retiring.
Voiceport, LLC, a leading customer self-service automation software provider serving the newspaper and subscription industry, acquired Innovative Systems Design Inc. (ISD Chatterbox), effective Nov. 1. ISD has a proven track record in serving the newspaper industry since 1987. Its products and services align with Voiceport’s product portfolio.
Grady College journalists are teaming with one of their alums to rescue a 148-year-old weekly newspaper in nearby Oglethorpe County with the help of an innovative experiential learning project. Within hours of hearing that the county newspaper, the Oglethorpe Echo, was announcing its final publication, Dink Nesmith (ABJ ’70) created a plan to save the newspaper. The centerpiece of the plan includes senior journalism students at Grady College, who will learn in a working community newsroom. The plan was created when Echo publisher Ralph Maxwell announced that he was ceasing publication due to health issues. Nesmith quickly put a plan in place to save the paper and transitioned The Echo into a non-profit organization, The Oglethorpe Echo Legacy Inc. The Maxwell family is donating the paper to the non-profit.
The New York Sun, a daily broadsheet that folded in 2008 after a six-year run, will make an online comeback under new ownership. Seth Lipsky, the editor in chief and former owner of The Sun, sold the publication in a cash and stock deal to Dovid Efune, who until recently was the top editor of The Algemeiner, a Jewish-interest print and online publication based in New York. They did not disclose the sale price.
The Lexington County Chronicle and Fish Wrapper have been purchased by a family whose history with South Carolina newspapers dates back to the 1890s. Jack and Kyle Osteen — part of the family that has owned The Sumter Item, a five-day-per-week paper covering that city and county east of Columbia, since its founding in 1894 — bought Lexington’s newspaper in September. As part of this change, former owners Jerry and Macleod Bellune — who founded the Chronicle in 1992, and eventually merged it with The Dispatch News, which began serving Lexington County in 1870 — are retiring. Parks Rogers will serve as publisher for the newly purchased Lexington-based media company.
Hearst has agreed to acquire an 80% stake in leading connected vehicle solution provider Noregon Systems, Inc. The announcement was made jointly by Hearst President and Chief Executive Officer Steven R. Swartz and Noregon Systems founder and CEO Bill Hathaway. Hathaway will retain a 20% ownership stake in Noregon and continue to serve as its CEO. Terms were not disclosed and the transaction, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close by end of Q4.