Halifax Media Buys Telegram & Gazette from Red Sox Owner

Halifax Media Group of Daytona Beach, Florida, has added another large daily paper to its lineup.

Halifax, a newspaper chain in which Little Rock financier Warren Stephens is a major investor, announced last month a deal to buy the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Massachusetts, from John Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Globe.

According to an announcement on the Telegram & Gazette’s website, the sale price wasn’t disclosed, but the paper and its assets have an estimated value of $7 million to $15 million. That’s a far cry from the price the New York Times Co. paid to buy the T&G in 2000: almost $300 million.

In 2009 Henry paid $70 million for both the Telegram & Gazette and the Globe. Henry announced in November that he wanted to sell the T&G.

“From the time we learned the T&G was for sale we were interested,” Halifax CEO Michael Redding said in a statement. “The T&G is an excellent local newspaper with a dedicated and talented staff.”

The purchase represents Halifax’s first newspaper located outside of the southeastern U.S.

With the purchase, Halifax now owns 35 publications, mostly in Florida but also in Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina. In November, it acquired HarborPoint Media LLC of Leesburg, Florida, which owned the Daily Commercial of Leesburg, the News-Sun of Sebring and the South Lake Press of Clermont.