Gannett Completes Purchase of 19 Thomson Dailies

Posted on July 21, 2000

Gannett Co., Inc. has concluded the transactions to acquire 19 daily newspapers as well as numerous weekly and niche publications from Thomson Newspapers Inc. for an aggregate purchase price of $1.036 billion. Gannett has acquired strategic marketing groups in Wisconsin (eight dailies); Central Ohio (eight dailies); and single daily newspaper groups in Lafayette, LA; Salisbury, MD; and St. George, UT.

Thomson's strategic marketing group in Southwest Ohio, including two daily newspapers, originally was part of the transaction with Gannett but may be acquired instead by Cox Newspapers Inc. Cox has exercised its right of first refusal for the Middletown Journal and the Journal News in Hamilton.

Gannett Co., Inc. is an international news and information company that now publishes 93 daily newspapers in the USA, including USA Today. The company also owns in excess of 200 non-daily publications and USA Weekend, a weekly newspaper magazine.