From Editor & Publisher, July 27

CNHI buys Massachusetts-based Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company

By Mark Fitzgerald

After more than a century of Rogers family ownership, the Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company newspapers are being sold to Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI), Eagle-Tribune Chairman Irving E. "Chip" Rogers III announced Wednesday, July 27.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The sale includes the company's flagship, The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass., and three other Massachusetts dailies: The Salem News, Gloucester Daily Times, and The Daily News of Newburyport. The four dailies have a combined circulation of 105,958. Also included in the sale are six non-dailies.

The well-regarded Eagle-Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for its breaking-news coverage of the drowning of four boys in the Merrimack River. In 1988, it won a Pulitzer for its coverage of the controversial furlough of convict Willie Horton.

Alexander Rogers, the great-grandfather of the current Eagle-Tribune chairman, started the group in 1898 when he bought the Lawrence Daily Eagle and the Evening Tribune.

In a statement, Chip Rogers called the sale a "natural step forward for (the Eagle-Tribune's) future growth."

"CNHI is focused on high-quality local journalism -- and that’s what we’ve been about for 107 years," he said. "During that time, my family has been honored to play a part in building and strengthening the communities we serve. No question: It’s a stewardship."

The Eagle-Tribune is a prestigious acquisition for the fast-growing CNHI, which was founded just seven years ago in Birmingham, Ala. When the acquisition is complete, CNHI will own 91 daily newspapers in 23 states with combined daily circulation of more than 1 million.

Santa Fe, N.M.-based Dirks, Van Essen & Murray represented the Eagle-Tribune group in the transaction.