By Karen Schutte reprinted from the Real Estate Daily News
Wick Communications has entered into a preliminary agreement to sell its Tucson Weekly and Inside Tucson Business publications to 10/13 Communications, a Colorado -based company.
Wick CEO, Tom Yunt made the announcement to employees at a company-wide staff meeting, saying the deal is expected to be finalized by the end of April. The 25 people who work for both newspapers were told everyone would be required to reapply for their positions.
Yunt, who newly took the CEO position at Wick on Oct. 7, 2013 says the company will retain its ownership of the Daily Territorial, which publishes mostly legal notices.
Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a newspaper merger and acquisition firm in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is representing Wick Communications in the transaction.
Wick acquired the Tucson Weekly in 2000 and Inside Tucson Business in 1992. The Sierra Vista-based company owns several Southern Arizona Newspapers. The family-owned chain also owns newspapers and news website in 10 other states.
According to the prepared statement, Tucson Weekly has distribution of approximately 40,000 in the greater Tucson area and 2.4 million annual unique website visitors. Inside Tucson Business is published weekly with a total circulation of almost 5,000. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Earlier this month (April 2, 2014) 10/13 Communications LLC finalized the acquisition of three other local publications, Marana News, Foothills News, Desert Times and related websites from Tucson West Publishing, Inc. a division of News Media Corporation. 10/13 Communications acquired the Explorer news of Northwest Tucson in October 2007.
“The addition of Tucson Weekly and Inside Tucson Business is great for our company and for increasing our reach and effectiveness for advertisers in the Tucson market,” said Randy Miller, president of 10/13 Communications. “With these publications and websites, along with the Explorer that dominates the northwest area and our other recent acquisitions, our Tucson Local Media group is positioned to be the number one media company in Tucson.”
10/13 Communications publications boast hyper-local reporting and an innovative distribution model. Its Arizona Local Media group includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning East Valley Tribune, the Daily News-Sun, Glendale Today, Peoria Today, Surprise Today, Ahwatukee Foothills News, Clipper Marketplace and U and Your Home in Phoenix, together with the Arizona Interactive Media Group, and the Explorer in suburban Tucson. 10/13 Communications also publishes forty newspapers in Texas through Star Local Media in Dallas and its Houston Community Newspapers group.
Wick Communications is a family-owned community media company with newspapers, websites, magazines and niche specialty publications in 11 states. The home offices are in Sierra Vista, Arizona, and publishes newspapers in Arizona, Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, and South Dakota.
For more information contact Dirks, Van Essen & Murray at (505) 820-2700.
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