Dolan buys Fed News Service

The Dolan Co., which owns business newspapers across the country, said Monday that it has acquired Federal News Service, the provider of verbatim transcripts of important events in the nation’s capital.

Dolan acquired the assets of Federal News Service from the trustee of the bankruptcy estate of Cheryl A. Reagan. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Richard Taylor in Hot Springs, Arkansas recently approved the transaction, and it closed Aug. 8.

Fed News is a 25-year-old company that, using special technology and trained specialists who work in real time, transcribes Washington’s events and delivers the transcriptions quickly to its customers. Transcriptions cover presidential public appearances; major congressional hearings; speeches, statements and press conferences by administration leaders, congressional leaders and their spokespersons; briefings and important events at the White House and departments of State, Defense, Justice, Homeland Security and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; speeches and press conferences by visiting international leaders; political interviews on TV; and key events during presidential campaigns. It also provides multi-language translations and custom transcription services.

Its customers include government agencies, news media, embassies and foreign governments, and broadcast monitoring services.

“Fed News plays an important role in public affairs, reporting exactly what was said, rather than official transcripts that often show only what was supposed to have been said,” said president James P. Dolan in announcing the transaction.

Dolan also named Rebecca Snyder as Fed News vice president and general manager, reporting to Mark Stodder, executive vice president of The Dolan Co.’s Business Information Division. He said the company would remain at its offices at 1000 Vermont Avenue NW.

Snyder takes over Federal News Service after working for 12 years at The Dolan Co.’s Daily Record Company in Baltimore, where she most recently was vice president and general manager since 2005. She started with Daily Record Company as a classified advertising sales representative in 1998 and later became operations director.

Dolan owns the Long Island Business News, Mississippi Business Journal, the Colorado Springs Business Journal, the Idaho Business Review and the Daily Journal of Commerce in Portland, Ore., among others.