St. Maries, ID – Dan and Cindy Hammes, second generation family owners of the St. Maries Gazette Record, St. Maries, Idaho, have sold the newspaper to Jesse and Sasha Mullen of Deer Lodge, Mt, according to John Thomas Cribb of Cribb, Greene & Cope who represented the Hammes family in the transaction.

The Gazette Record was founded in 1906 and purchased by the Hammes family in 1958. Since 1992, Dan and Cindy Hammes have operated the newspaper.

“It was a tough decision to sell,” said Hammes. “Despite the challenges we all faced over the last year, business has been good. For that we are grateful to our readers and local businesses.”

“Not only do we have a great staff, we publish in a great community. But we agreed it is time to retire and we know the Mullens will be a good fit and do a great job for our community.”

Jesse and Sasha Mullen are owners of the Bitterroot Star, Silver State Post and Philipsburg Mail newspapers in Montana as well as the Browsing Bison bookstore chain.