Contest deadlines March 30

The deadline to enter the 2007 Better Newspaper Contest is Friday, March 30. All entries must be postmarked by that day, no exceptions.

New this year are two special section categories.

March 30 also is the deadline for the Monson FOI Award sponsored by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and TPA. Details also are online.

Australian firm buys Dallas publisher for $80 million

DALLAS — Macquarie Media Group entered into an agreement to purchase American Consolidated Media for $80 million.

ACM was founded in 1998 by Jeremy Halbreich, former president of The Dallas Morning News, and made its first acquisitions in 1999 in Colorado, Maine and Massachusetts. In 2000 ACM made its first acquisition in Texas and the company continued on an aggressive expansion plan until amassing 40 newspapers in Texas and Oklahoma. The newspapers in Colorado, Maine and Massachusetts have since been sold.

The company has five dailies, including Alice Echo News Journal, Brownwood Bulletin, Stephenville Empire-Tribune and Waxahachie Daily Light, 19 weeklies and 16 shoppers.

Halbreich and his management team will continue in their current roles following the acquisition completion.

Macquarie Media Group is an Australian investment firm and owns Macquarie Regional Radioworks, the largest commercial radio portfolio in Australia.

The deal was expected to close this month. Dirks, Van Essen & Murray acted as the financial advisor to ACM in the transaction.

Metroplex group to get new public company status

DALLAS — Courtside Acquisition Corp., a specified purpose acquisition company, has agreed to purchase American Community Newspapers LLC, which owns 73 newspapers nationwide.

In Texas, ACN’s holdings include the dailies Plano Star Courier and McKinney Courier Gazette and at least 12 other newspapers.

Courtside will acquire substantially all of the assets of ACN for $165 million, according to The Allen American. Following the closing, expected in the second quarter 2007, Courtside will be renamed American Community Newspapers Inc. and its securities are expected to trade on the American Stock Exchange.

ACN is currently owned by Spire Capital Partners L.P., Wachovia Capital Partners and members of ACN ’s senior management.

Austin daily plans 66,000 square foot expansion

AUSTIN — The Austin American-Statesman is planning a 66,000- square-foot expansion of its complex at 305 S. Congress Ave. on Austin ’s Town Lake that will house new equipment for assembling and packaging newspapers for shipment, the newspaper reported.

Work could begin by the summer and should take about a year. The expansion will occur along the west, or Congress Avenue, side of the Statesman complex and will comply with a development plan that the city approved in 1989.

Since the existing packaging operation was built in 1981, the annual volume of advertising circulars inserted into newspapers has increased from 70 million pieces to 633 million pieces at the end of 2005. Total printed products, which include the American-Statesman and commercial publications, have grown to more than 1.075 billion pieces a year.

Lancaster Today closes

DESOTO — The weekly Lancaster Today ceased publication at the end of 2006.

Today Newspapers Inc. will continue to operate its other weeklies Cedar Hill Today, DeSoto Today and Duncanville Today as well as Grand Prairie Today, which the company started in the fall. In May managing editor Robin Gooch and advertising director Kim Petty purchased the four Today Newspapers.

Lancaster Today traced its roots to the Lancaster News founded in 1976.

Abilene daily launches Spanish-language publication

ABILENE — The Abilene Reporter-News introduced Las Familias de Abilene last month, hoping to reach out to the city’s growing Hispanic community. The monthly newspaper is printed in Spanish and English, and will be delivered free to the homes of 5,100 Abilene families with Hispanic surnames. About 5,000 free copies also are available in stands across the city.

Fort Worth daily set 5-year low for corrections in ’06

FORT WORTH — The Star-Telegram has a unique policy on running corrections and clarifications on the cover of the section in which an inaccuracy was printed, even if it ’s on Page One. Reader advocate David House reported that in 2006 the paper published 504 corrections and clarifications — a record five-year low. The previous years’ totals were: 656 in 2005; 709 in 2004; 734 in 2003; and 659 in 2002.