Delta Media buys Ripon paper

After 57 years, the Ripon Commonwealth Press and Express in Ripon, Wisconsin, has new owners. Effective Jan. 1, the Lyke family sold the paper and shopper to Delta Media Group, based in Kiel, Wisconsin. The company owns a digital marketing agency and several papers.

Julie Bergman of Grimes, McGovern & Associates represented the Lyke family in the transaction.

Delta Media Group is an affiliate of the O’Rourke Media Group, a family-owned, Chicago-based company that owns and operates community papers, associated digital products and a marketing agency in northwestern Vermont.

Joe Mathes, general manager and a partner at Delta Media Group, will assume added responsibility for managing the Ripon business.

The Lyke family also owned Ripon Printers, which was acquired in a separate transaction by Walsworth, a family-owned commercial printer and publisher of yearbooks based in Marceline, Missouri.

Between the two acquisitions, nearly all existing employees are expected to be retained, according to a release.

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