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Paxton Media Group Buys West Memphis Evening News

2 min read

Paxton Media Group of Paducah, Kentucky, which has bought a string of Arkansas newspapers over the past few years, has added the daily West Memphis Evening Times to its roster, a brokerage representative announced Friday.

Paxton also bought the Germantown News of Tennessee, a weekly, from Germantown Publishing Co. Inc.

The Arkansas paper had been owned by Crittenden Publishing Co. Inc., based in Marion and owned by J. Thomas Ricketson of Lake City, Florida, and longtime Publisher Alex Coulter. Ricketson had owned the West Memphis paper since 1974, the same year Coulter came on as publisher. Crittenden Publishing and Ricketson also own Germantown Publishing, purchased in 1978.

Both newspapers’ digital properties were included in the sale, for which no financial details were provided. All the companies involved are privately owned.

“This business combination creates a strong regional presence for us as it fits well with our other properties in northeast Arkansas,” said a statement by Jamie Paxton, chief operating officer of Paxton Media Group. The family-owned chain publishes daily and weekly papers in more than 50 communities in the Midwest and South. Reece Terry, a group publisher, will oversee management of The Times and Germantown News.

Ricketson, the seller, has owned many dailies and weeklies in a long newspaper career in Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and Colorado. He held management positions with Cowles Communications and the Jefferson Pilot newspapers. Coulter has worked closely with Ricketson for five decades.

Other Paxton newspapers in Arkansas are the Jonesboro Sun, Conway’s Log Cabin Democrat, the Van Buren County Democrat in Clinton, the Newport Independent, the Batesville Guard, Searcy’s The Daily Citizen, the Paragould Daily Press and the Russellville Courier.

Lon Williams of Media America Brokers in Atlanta represented Crittenden Publishing and Germantown Publishing in the transaction.

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