Herald-Whig, Courier-Post part of sale by parent company to Carpenter Media Group

QUINCY — Arkansas-based Phillips Media Group (PMG), a media company that owns The Herald-Whig in Quincy and The Courier-Post in Hannibal, announced Friday, Aug. 30, that it has reached an agreement to sell 16 community newspapers in three states to Carpenter Media Group (CMG), which owns more than 125 community news publications throughout the United States.

“It has been a pleasure to own and operate these great publications,” Rupert Phillips, PMG’s president and CEO, said in a press release. “Their future will be in good hands with Carpenter Media Group, a company focused on continuing the tradition of providing a quality newspaper for their local communities.”

Also acquired in the sale were the Baxter (Ark.) Bulletin, Harrison (Ark.) Daily Times, Newton County (Ark.) Times, Big Nickel, Bolivar (Mo.) Herald-Free Press, Buffalo (Mo.) Reflex, Cedar County (Mo.) Republican, Christian County (Mo.) Headliner News, Kirksville (Mo.) Daily Express, The Marshfield (Mo.) Mail, NEMO Trader, Sedalia (Mo.) Democrat, Warrensburg (Mo.) Star-Journal and the West Plains (Mo.) Daily Quill.

The deal also includes Nowata Printing Company in Springfield, Mo.

Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, NM, represented Phillips Media Group in the transaction. Terms were not disclosed.

Carpenter News Group, which has offices in Natchez, Miss., and Tuscaloosa, Ala., lists five other publications that it owns in Illinois — the Rochelle News-Leader, Amboy News, Clinton Journal, Ogle Country Life and Mendota Reporter. 

Carpenter News Group lists on its website that it also owns publications in Alabama (3), Alakska (3), Arizona (3), Georgia (9), Hawaii (7), Kentucky (8), Louisiana (7), Mississippi (7), North Carolina (5), Ohio (1), Oregon (18), South Dakota (5), Texas (2), Tennessee (2), Virginia (3), Washington (31) and Wyoming (9), as well as 104 across Canada.

The biggest acquisition this year by Carpenter News Group was when it acquired 43 Sound Publishing newspapers in Washington and Alaska by purchasing parent company Black Press in late March. However, the Seattle Times reported in June that 62 people were laid off at Sound Publishing Newspapers. 

Pamplin Media, which owned two dozen Oregon publications and websites, sold its operations in June to Carpenter Media Group. The Oregonian in Portland then reported in July that Carpenter Media Group laid off “an unknown number of employees, including in its newsrooms” at the former Pamplin Media newspapers.

“We feel fortunate to succeed Rupert Phillips and his team in these communities with these newspapers that are so important to each one,” CMG chairman Todd Carpenter said in a press release. “To work with a group like this is a pleasure and privilege because of the quality of the company, the people and the good foundations they put down.”

Before becoming CMG’s chairman, Carpenter was a longtime CEO and president of Boone Newsmedia, Inc. His bio on the Carpenter Media Group website says he is a 40-year veteran of the newspaper industry. He lives in Natchez, Miss., where he was the publisher of the Natchez Democrat before becoming president of Boone Newsmedia.

The Herald-Whig and the Courier-Post produce print editions on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Phillips Media purchased The Herald-Whig and The Courier-Post in 2021 from Quincy Media in a move that preceded the company’s sale of its broadcast properties to Gray Media Group later that year. The sale ended 95 years of newspaper publishing by Quincy Media, which had previously been known as Quincy Newspapers Inc. until 2016. The company acquired The Hannibal Courier-Post in 2019, swapping The New Jersey Herald for it in a trade with Gatehouse (now Gannett) Media.