American Consolidated Media buys papers

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Dallas (AP) – American Consolidated Media LLC announced Friday that it is purchasing Superior Publishing Corp., which publishes three daily newspapers and 16 other publications in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
The daily newspapers being purchased include two in Minnesota, The Daily Tribune in Hibbing and the Mesabi Daily News in Virginia, and The Daily Press in Ashland, Wis.
ACM is acquiring SPC from the MCG Capital Corp., a business development company. Terms were not disclosed.
American Consolidated was bought in February by Australia’s Macquaire Media Group. With the new acquisitions, the company will grow to nine daily newspapers and 56 other publications in Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
The SPC management group, including the Mesabi Daily News publishing team of Shelly Lindberg, Chris Knight and Bill Hanna, will remain in place. “We believe it will be very good for our employees, the overall newspaper and therefore the communities we serve,” the team said.
“In the past months, my associates and I have traveled northern Minnesota and Wisconsin on several occasions, and we could not be more impressed by these communities and the people,” said Jeremy L. Halbreich, chairman president and CEO of ACM said.
“ACM has a broad strategy to build a newspaper company in the United States comprised of superior, high-quality, local community newspapers with traditions of strong service to their local communities,” he said. “The quality publications of SPC along with their management and employees fit this pattern perfectly.”
“This is a great fit and future for our employees, our newspapers and our communities,” said Charles R. Johnson, president and CEO of SPC. “ACM has an aggressive strategy of growth and investment in communities served by their publications.”