The (Shamokin) News-Item, May 14

Times-Shamrock buys Virgin Islands Daily News

Times-Shamrock Communications announced May 14, an agreement in principle to acquire the Virgin Islands Daily News, an 8,500-circulation daily newspaper covering the U.S. Virgin Islands and portions of the British Virgin Islands.

The newspaper, which is based on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas, a major cruise-ship destination, becomes Times-Shamrock’s eighth daily newspaper.

Times-Shamrock submitted the winning bid to purchase the newspaper, which was being sold in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding against its parent holding company, Innovative Communication Corp., which also controls cable-TV, Internet and telephone subsidiaries in the Caribbean and France. The Daily News Publishing Co. Inc., the subsidiary that operates the newspaper, was not a debtor in the bankruptcy.

The sale is subject to the approval of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Pittsburgh, which is expected to hear the case on Friday, May 16.

Matthew Haggerty, general manager of interactive media for Times-Shamrock, and George Lynett Jr., publisher of Times-Shamrock’s daily newspaper in Towanda, The Daily Review, were in St. Thomas the past several days to negotiate the purchase and meet the staff.

“We are very excited about adding the Virgin Islands Daily News to Times-Shamrock Communications,” Haggerty said. “The Daily News has a great tradition of journalistic excellence, and we look forward to building on that tradition.”

“The U.S. and British Virgin Islands are great markets, and The Daily News is the dominant source for local news and entertainment. We are looking forward to becoming part of the community,” Lynett said.

The Virgin Islands Daily News, founded in 1930, has a distinguished journalistic history. It won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for an expose of corruption in the islands’ criminal justice system.

The newspaper reaches more than 80 percent of U.S. Virgin Islands residents and 20 percent of British Virgin Islands residents. It operates a Web site, www.virginislandsdailynews.com, and several weekly newspapers and other publications. The Daily News’ headquarters and printing facility overlook the cruise-ship harbor in Charlotte Amalie, the territory’s capital city on St. Thomas.

The Virgin Islands are a territory of the United States located about 90 miles southeast of Puerto Rico. The islands have a combined population of 108,000. Residents hold full U.S. citizenship but may not vote in presidential elections. The principal three islands are St. Thomas, the governmental and commercial center; St. John, renowned for its coral reefs and for a huge national park that covers two-thirds of the island; and St. Croix, the largest of the islands. The islands were named by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493. The United States purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917. Tourism is the chief industry, with more than 2.6 million visitors in 2005.

Times-Shamrock Communications, which is wholly owned by the Lynett and Haggerty families of Scranton, owns seven other daily newspapers: The Times-Tribune in Scranton, The Citizens’ Voice in Wilkes-Barre, The Standard-Speaker in Hazleton, The Republican & Herald in Pottsville, The News-Item in Shamokin, The Daily Review in Towanda and The Progress-Index in Petersburg, Va. It also owns weekly alternative newspapers in Baltimore, Detroit, Orlando and San Antonio; radio stations in Scranton, Baltimore, Tulsa, Reno and Milwaukee; the Electric City and Diamond City entertainment weeklies in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre; the monthly Pennsylvania music publication Shinbone, published in Shamokin; as well as community weekly newspapers in Northeastern Pennsylvania and Upstate New York.

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