Paxton Media Group has purchased three newspapers in Indiana and Illinois – the Princeton Daily Clarion, the Mount Carmel Register and The Standard – from Brehm Communications, according to Randy Cope, Cribb, Greene & Cope, who represented Brehm in the transaction.
Paxton Media, a family-owned company headquartered in Paducah, Ky., owns more than 30 daily newspapers and numerous weekly publications across Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee. Brehm Communications is a family-owned newspaper group based in San Diego, California and owns newspapers in the midwest and western United States.
“We are gratified for the opportunity to assume stewardship of the Princeton Daily Clarion, the Mount Carmel Register and The Standard,” said David Paxton, president and chief executive officer of Paxton Media Group. Bill Brehm, Jr. said “We are very pleased that the Paxton group was the buyer for these newspapers, they have a presence in that area and are a good family-owned group. They should be very good stewards of these newspapers and the communities they serve.”
The Princeton Daily Clarion in Princeton, Ind., was founded in 1846 and is Gibson County’s oldest, continuous business institution. It publishes five days a week. The Mount Carmel Register in Mt. Carmel, Ill., publishes three days a week, and The Standard in Booneville, Ind., is a weekly serving Boonville, Chandler, Elberfeld, Lynnville, Newburgh, Tennyson and all of Warrick County.
The papers will join other surrounding Paxton publications in a group managed by Group Publisher Bob Morris. That group includes three other dailies – the Messenger-Inquirer in Owensboro, Ky., The Messenger in Madisonville, Ky., and the Vincennes Sun-Commercial in Vincennes, Ind. – and three weekly publications.
Paxton said the new acquisitions will be in a better position to serve readers and advertisers by combining their strengths with the other nearby Paxton papers.
“This business combination provides the financial security needed to assure these newspapers will continue to serve their communities long into the future,” Paxton said.