Media General Plans to Sell Two Community Newspapers

Posted on July 14, 2000

Media General has agreed to sell a group of newspapers in Virginia and North Carolina to Boone Newspapers Inc. of Tuscaloosa, AL. The sale includes the daily Suffolk News-Herald in southeastern Virginia and the triweekly Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald in Ahoskie, NC, and several smaller publications associated with those newspapers.

``These newspapers came to us in recent years as part of larger acquisitions,'' said H. Graham Woodlief Jr., president of Media General's Publishing Division. ``They are in good markets, but they are isolated from our larger properties and will fit better strategically with Boone Newspapers.''

Boone publishes newspapers and shopping guides in 34 communities in Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Ohio. Many of those communities are similar in size to Suffolk, VA, and Ahoskie, NC.

``Media General's decision to transfer ownership of these publications to us is an opportunity we appreciate,'' said James B. Boone Jr., chairman of Boone Newspapers. ``We will work hard to properly serve each community. Suffolk is of particular interest and importance to me because I spent seven good years there as publisher of the News-Herald in the 1960s. It will be good to renew old friendships.''

Media General is an independent, publicly owned communications company situated primarily in the Southeast with interests in newspapers, television, interactive media, recycled newsprint, and diversified information services. Media General's publishing assets include The Tampa Tribune, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and 19 other daily newspapers in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, as well as nearly 100 weeklies and other periodicals and a 20 percent interest in The Denver Post.