Local Dow Jones papers are for sale

News Corp. is seeking to sell its Dow Jones community newspapers, reports Keach Hagey of The Wall Street Journal.

Hagey writes, “Founded by James H. Ottaway Sr. in 1936, the community-papers group today includes eight general-interest daily newspapers and their related websites in California, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania. In fiscal 2012, their average daily circulation was more than 188,000 and Sunday circulation was over 238,000, News Corp. has said in government filings.

“News Corp. acquired the papers when it bought Dow Jones & Co.., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, in 2007. It tried briefly to sell the papers at that time but pulled the papers off the market in 2008.

“Newspaper industry observers say potential buyers could include Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway, which has bought dozens of local newspapers in the last year, as well as Halifax Media Group, which bought the New York Times Co.’s regional newspapers last year.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.