Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

Halifax Media to Buy 20 More Newspapers

2 min read

Florida newspaper company Halifax Media, a majority of which is owned by Stephens Capital Partners of Little Rock, plans to finalize its purchase of 20 newspapers in Florida and North Carolina by July 1.

Halifax Media has not disclosed financial details of the deal struck with Freedom Communications Inc. of Irvine, Calif.

The purchase of daily and weekly newspapers from Freedom Communications follows closely behind Halifax Media’s $143 million buy Jan. 6 of 16 community newspapers from the New York Times Co.

"These properties provide a perfect extension to our recently acquired New York Times Regional Newspaper Group papers and reflect our interest in preserving community journalism for years to come," Halifax CEO Michael Redding said in a news release.

From Freedom, Halifax is buying the Florida newspapers The Times of Apalachicola; Holmes County Times-Advertiser of Bonifay; The Star of Port St. Joe; The Walton Sun of Santa Rosa Beach; The Washington County News of Chipley; The Crestview News Bulletin of Crestview; The Destin Log of Destin; Northwest Florida Daily News of Fort Walton Beach; Santa Rosa’s Press Gazette and Santa Rosa Free Press, both in Milton; and The News Herald of Panama City.

Also included in the transaction are the following newspapers in North Carolina: Times-News of Burlington; The Havelock News of Havelock; The Daily News of Jacksonville; The Free Press and The Jones Post, both of Kinston; The Gaston Gazette of Gastonia; The Sun Journal of New Bern; The Star of Shelby and The Topsail Advertiser in Surf City.

Stephens Capital, Redding Investments of Daytona Beach and Jaarsss Media of Destin, Fla., are the investors behind Halifax Media.

Warren Stephens, owner of Stephens Capital Partners, told ArkansasBusiness.com in May that he still sees newspapers as a healthy investment.

"I’m a believer that local news, news that you aren’t going to find anywhere else, be it in Arkansas Business or be it in your local newspaper, is going to be of value to people and therefore of value to advertisers," Stephens said.

Stephens also owns newspaper company Stephens Media of Las Vegas with his cousins, Witt Stephens Jr. and Elizabeth Stephens Campbell.

Besides some overlapping ownership, Stephens Media has no connection to Halifax Media.

Send this to a friend