Star-Telegram gets new owner in KR sell out

The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento will acquire Knight Ridder Inc. of San Jose and with it will become the new owner of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

McClatchy would be only the fifth owner of the Star-Telegram in the newspaper’s 100-year history. The Star-Telegram also owned the Mansfield News-Mirror, which was included in the sale.

After the transaction McClatchy named former Texas publisher Lynn Dickerson as its new corporate vice president of operations in Sacramento. Dickerson had been publisher and president of McClatchy’s Modesto Bee in California since leaving as publisher of the Wichita Falls Times Record News in May 2000. Dickerson is a past president of Texas Daily Newspaper Association.

The Knight Ridder-McClatchy transaction value was $67.25 per share and valued at approximately $6.5 billion, including approximately $2 billion in assumed debt at closing.

The expanded McClatchy Co. will have 32 daily newspapers and approximately 50 non-dailies after the planned sale of 12 Knight Ridder daily papers. McClatchy’s dailies will then have a combined daily circulation of about 3.2 million, making it the nation’s second largest newspaper company measured by daily circulation.

Liberty, Anahuac sold

LIBERTY — Hartman Newspapers LP, has sold its interest in The Liberty Vindicator, Anahuac Progress and The Advertiser as of April 1 to Granite Publishing Partners Inc., part of Granite Publications of Taylor.

Emmett McKinley assumed duties as publisher effective April 12. McKinley brings more than 27 years of newspaper experience to the post. From 1978 until 1990, he was a national advertising sales rep and national advertising sales director for MediaNews Group. For seven years, he worked for Sun Newspapers as director of sales and marketing before returning to MediaNews Group as advertising director and vice president of sales.

Granite Publications is a family of community newspapers with 23 publications in Texas.

Hartman Newspapers and the Hartman family had been involved in The Vindicator since 1968.

Brackettville changes owners

BRACKETVILLE — Jewel Robinson has sold The Brackett News to Leigh Jenkins Volcsko. Volcsko took over as publisher, editor and ad director.

The newspaper was founded Feb. 9, 1989.

Goldthwaite stays in family

GOLDTHWAITE — Frank and Georgie Bridges announced the sale of The Goldthwaite Eagle to their son Steven W. Bridges, effective April 1.

Steven Bridges is a fifth-generation Texas newspaper owner and the great-great grandson of James Pierce Bridges of the Luling Signal, the fourth president of Texas Press Association.

The 112-year-old county-seat weekly has been operated by the elder Bridges since 1971. They will continue to operate the printing and office supply Eagle Press.

Their son has been associated with the Eagle for the past five years, following a stint as a commodities trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

South Texas publisher adds Panhandle semiweekly

CANYON — The Canyon News has a new owner. Brad Tooley ended 22 years as owner and publisher and Jim Moser of Victoria took over as owner and publisher.

The News will be published by Palo Duro Publishing LP.

The sale was brokered by W.B. Grimes & Co. of Gaithersburg, Md., represented by former Plainview Daily Herald publisher Rollie Hyde, who is now senior associate for media mergers and acquisitions.

Tooley is the son of Wendell and Mary Tom Tooley, who bought the News in 1984 and remained a financial partner. Tooley will operate Choice Outdoor, a billboard and bus bench business, and Choice Phone Directories, which publishes phone books.

Moser comes from a newspaper family and owns the Jackson County Herald-Tribune and Cuero Record. His father, Charles, has published The Brenham Banner-Press for the past 36 years.

Hood County returns to semiweekly publication

GRANBURY — The Hood County News resumed semiweekly publication on April 5 after five years publishing as a triweekly.

The News also will begin publishing a subscription e-version on its Web site. The newspaper will market the e-version to out-of-area subscribers as an alternative to mail delivery.

Court drops suit over Morning News circulation

DALLAS — Belo Corp. announced that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted its and other defendants' motions to dismiss the federal securities class action lawsuits filed against them in 2004 arising out of a circulation overstatement at The Dallas Morning News. The court granted the plaintiffs leave to file an amended complaint.

Austin Spanish daily folds

Rumbo suspended publication of its Austin Spanish-language daily that launched in 2004. Rumbo also reduced publication to three times a week in Houston and San Antonio and weekly in the Rio Grande Valley.