Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc., the parent of the Orange County Register, has struck a deal to sell a group of six newspapers in Texas and another four in the Midwest in separate deals expected to close in the next month on undisclosed terms.
AIM Media Texas LLC agreed to buy the Texas newspapers, including the Odessa American, in a deal announced May 18.
Philadelphia-based private equity firm Versa Capital Management LLC is in line to buy the publications in the Midwest.
The deals followed by about a week reports that Freedom was in advanced negotiations to sell the Register to owners of the U-T San Diego newspaper. Douglas Manchester, a developer, and John Lynch, now chief executive of the San Diego daily, bought the San Diego Union-Tribune in November and renamed it.
Freedom’s Texas sale also includes the Brownsville Herald, El Nuevo Heraldo, the Harlingen Valley Morning Star, the Monitor in McAllen, and the Mid Valley Town Crier in Weslaco.
The deal in the Midwest, announced the previous day, included newspapers in Alton, Ill.; Jacksonville, Ill.; Sedalia, Mo.; and Lima, Ohio.
AIM said all employees at the Texas publications will be kept aboard.
“The sale furthers our goal of providing value to our shareholders while at the same time increasing the financial strength of Freedom,” Freedom Chief Executive Mitch Stern said. “With their commitment to providing the accurate and timely information that their communities want and deserve, these properties showcase, through the hard work of their associates, what community journalism is all about. We believe that commitment and tradition will be carried on by the new ownership.”
The two latest sales are the most recent in a string that started last year, when Freedom sold off its eight television stations for $385 million to Hunt Valley, Md.-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.
