Correction: Steve Trolinger is CEO and one of the founders of Bentonville-based Community Publishers Inc. This story misspelled his name.
Two Arkansas newspapers and other operations owned by Community Publishers in Bentonville are up for sale.
The Harrison Daily Times and the Newton County Times, both owned by Community Publishers, will be sold along with the company's publications in Oklahoma and Missouri and its other operations, the Harrison Daily Times reported Thursday.
The Harrison Daily Times employs about 24 people and has a circulation of around 9,000, according to its website. It also operates the weekly Newton County Times.
Community Publishers has seven publications in Missouri and seven in Oklahoma, mostly weekly newspapers, according to its website. It also operates Nowata Printing Co. based in Oklahoma and NPower Marketing of Bentonville, a website-design and online-marketing consultation firm.
Steve Trollinger, chief executive of Community Publishers and one of its founders, provided an email copy of a letter the company sent to its customers regarding the sale. He declined to comment further beyond the letter.
The letter indicated the ownership of Community Publishers decided, after more than 30 years in operation, that the time had come to sell.
"The owners are at the point in our lives that it makes sense to find qualified buyers. This sale is not because of any financial hardship. The Company is fully capable of meeting its obligations," the letter read, in part.
The company plans to continue to print and publish during the sale process. A timetable for the sale was not set but the letter indicated it could take several months to complete.
In 1982, Community Publishers purchased its first newspaper, the Benton County Daily Democrat in Bentonville. It began color printing in 1991 and purchased Nowata Printing in Oklahoma in 2007. The company started its first website in 1996.
In 2000, Community Publishers allied with WEHCO Media, which owns the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas' largest daily newspaper and 24 other newspapers and 13 cable television operations in six states. At the time, among other publications, Community Publishers owned the Northwest Arkansas Times in Fayetteville and the Benton County Daily Record in Bentonville. The deal distributed the papers with the Democrat-Gazette in Benton and Washington counties.
WEHCO later exercised its option to purchase the two daily papers and eight weekly newspapers from Community Publishers.
Business on 11/14/2014