IN THE NEWS

2009 Cribb, Greene Underground Blues Tour

The Cribb, Greene Blues Tour held during the annual Inland Press Association convention in Chicago was back "underground" in October 2009. About twenty-five tourees and tourettes started the evening at the famous Billy Goat Tavern (famous because Dan Akroid and John Belushi made their Saturday Night Live "cheezeborger, cheezeborger, cheezeborger" skit at the bar in the seventies) and, of course had cheeseburgers.

After the Billy Goat, the tour headed to the Kingston Mines blues club and listened to two excellent blues bands. By that time the group was up to nearly fifty dedicated and blues-oriented newspaper folks. A diehard group of a dozen or so went on to the Buddy Guy's blues bar and shot pool until the early hours.

Cribb, Greene has orchestrated a Chicago blues tour for a number of years, with the 2008 tour extended to all 200 Inland Convention participants. (See "200 Attend 2008 Blues Tour" story in etc.)

Fulton Newspapers, Inc.

February 08, 2010

Scotsman Press, one of central New York’s largest newspaper and shopper publishers as well as commercial printers, has acquired the Fulton-based Valley News as well as its companion publications, The Valley News Advertiser and The Fulton Patriot, according to Gary Greene of Cribb, Greene & Associates who represented the seller in the transaction. The recent acquisition was completed February 3 and Scotsman assumed operations of the Fulton publications Thursday, February 4.

The Fulton newspapers had been owned and operated for many years by Vincent Caravan and his son Ronald. The papers had been in the Caravan family for 38 years prior to the ownership transfer.

“For various personal reasons, the timing was right for us to retire from the responsibilities of publishing the community papers,” Ronald Caravan said. “When the opportunity arose recently to sell our interest to Scotsman, we felt a strong sense of confirmation that this was the right move at the right time. We have enjoyed a long and positive relationship with Scotsman and are confident they will sustain the tradition of The Valley News as the greater Fulton area’s primary community-news source.”

Scotsman Press has printed The Valley News almost continually since 1967. In 1991 when The Fulton Patriot was merged with The Valley News to form Fulton Newspapers, Inc., Scotsman also began printing The Fulton Patriot at its web-press printing facility

in Syracuse.

Scotsman publisher Loren Coburn said he felt “great excitement that The Valley News and Fulton Patriot have joined the Scotsman family.” He added, “We have great respect and admiration for the Caravans and the Fulton Newspapers organization. Personally, I have always felt The Valley News was among the best community newspapers in the state. We look forward to continuing that tradition of excellence.”

Upon his retirement from the newspaper business this week, Vincent Caravan had completed over 50 years of service to The Valley News. He started working for the newspaper’s founders, Colson and Beatrice Carr, in 1959 as their managing editor and then became owner in 1972 upon the Carr's retirement. Ronald Caravan became involved in The Valley News in 1974, balancing his newspaper work with a separate career as a part-time professor for the Syracuse University School of Music and as a professional classical performer of clarinet and saxophone. He will be continuing his varied musical activities and university teaching.

Cribb, Greene & Associates is an 87-year-old newspaper brokerage and appraisal firm with offices in Virginia and Montana.