The Kilgore News Herald has been acquired by M. Roberts
Media, owner of the Longview News-Journal, Tyler Morning Telegraph, The
Marshall News Messenger and other newspapers.
The
acquisition was announced to employees today. Terms of the deal between M.
Roberts Media and News Herald owner Bluebonnet Publishing Co. LLC were not
disclosed.
Gary
Borders, senior associate with Grimes, McGovern & Associates, represented
the seller in the transaction.
“The News
Herald, with its long history of support of Kilgore and Gregg and Rusk
counties, is a great fit with our family-owned company,” said Stephen N.
McHaney, president of M. Roberts Media. “The News Herald’s strong staff and
outstanding local news coverage will provide new opportunities for us to better
serve all our East Texas readers, customers
and business partners.”
In East
Texas, M. Roberts Media also owns the biweekly The Panola Watchman in Carthage South Texas , it owns the daily Victoria Advocate.
Bill
Woodall, managing partner of Bluebonnet Publishing Co., said readers,
advertisers and employees of the News Herald would be well served by M. Roberts
Media.
“We’re
extraordinarily proud of the newspaper produced by our staff and proud of the
newspaper’s contribution to the cities and school districts we cover,” Woodall
said. “But this is a changing industry and the News Herald needs an owner with
the energy and the resources to move it into a new era of local news – an era
in which print and digital platforms will merge transparently; M. Roberts Media
has both the energy and the resources.”
The Kilgore
News Herald has roots stretching back to the early days of the East Texas oil boom and has changed hands several times.
It represents the 1940 consolidation of the Kilgore Daily News, established in
1931, and the Kilgore Herald, founded in 1935. Then a daily publication, the
News Herald was owned by longtime publisher Charles K. Devall, who sold it in
1979 to Donrey Media Group of Arkansas Alabama
The
acquisition will be seamless for readers, advertisers and the News Herald’s
other business partners as the combined companies collaborate to ensure all
aspects of service are enhanced, said M. Roberts CEO Dick Franks.
Jerry Pye
will assume duties as publisher of the Kilgore News Herald. He also oversees
The Marshall News Messenger and The Panola Watchman.
No comments:
Post a Comment
For now, we're opening this blog to Anonymous comments. This will continue as long as civility rules. Disagree as you may, just keep it clean and stay on topic. No profanity, and no name calling. We reserve the right to moderate such comments, though the person who made it may come back and reword their message in a more civil way.