Paxton adds paper in West Memphis
Paxton Media Group, based in Kentucky, has purchased the Evening Times of West Memphis, adding to its stable of Arkansas newspapers.
The sale took effect Dec. 31, according to a news release Friday from Media America Brokers in Atlanta. Paxton, based in Paducah, Ky., also bought the Germantown News, a weekly in Germantown, Tenn., just east of Memphis.
Founded in 1957, the Evening Times has been owned by Crittenden Publishing Co. since 1974. Its principals are J. Thomas Ricketson of Lake City, Fla., and Alex Coulter, the Times' publisher since 1974. Ricketson and Coulter also owned Germantown Publishing Co. The sale includes digital properties and other publications of the newspapers.
The Evening Times is published on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with digital editions on Tuesday and Thursday.
Paxton, which is family owned, also has newspapers in Batesville, Clinton, Conway, Jonesboro, Newport, Paragould, Russellville and Searcy.
-- Stephen Steed
Toyota makes change at San Antonio plant
PRINCETON, Ind. -- Toyota will stop making its Tacoma small pickup in San Antonio next year as it shifts production to Mexico, but the company said no U.S. jobs will be lost.
To make up for the lost work, the San Antonio plant will build the Sequoia large SUV, and its 3,200 jobs will be preserved.
Currently the San Antonio plant builds the Tacoma as well as full-size Tundra pickups. The Tacoma also is built at a factory in Baja California, Mexico. Late last year, a Toyota plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, also began building Tacomas.
Tacoma production in San Antonio will start to wind down in late 2021, and Sequoia production will start in 2022, the company said.
Last summer Toyota announced that it would invest $391 million in the San Antonio plant to add capacity to build more vehicles.
The company also announced Friday that it has completed a $1.3 billion project modernizing an Indiana factory to boost vehicle production and add 550 jobs.
The project at the Princeton assembly plant in southwestern Indiana included retooling, new equipment installation and adding advanced manufacturing technology so it could increase production of the Highlander SUV. Toyota said the project grew by $700 million and 150 new jobs from what it first announced for the factory in early 2017.
-- The Associated Press
Arkansas Index falls 5.70, ends at 467.81
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Friday at 467.81, down 5.70.
Dillard's Inc. shares rose 2.13%. Uniti Group shares fell 5.86%. Bank OZK shares fell 5.06%.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 01/18/2020