Herald-Dispatch, WV Acquires Wayne County Publications

HD Media Company, LLC, of Huntington, West Virginia, publisher of the Herald-Dispatch, announced today that it has purchased the assets of Wayne County Publications, Inc., located in Wayne, West Virginia. The acquisition includes the 140-year-old Wayne County News, the Tri-State Weekend shopper and a commercial printing facility.

The paid-circulation Wayne County News publishes each Wednesday and Saturday and provides comprehensive community news and advertising for the Wayne County area. The Tri-State Weekly is mailed to approximately 150,000 homes in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, with community news and advertising inserts.

David Slavin, Grimes, McGovern & Associates, represented Wayne County Publishing, Inc. in the transaction.

The expansion by family-owned HD Media Company follows closely their acquisition of the Herald-Dispatch, the daily newspaper in Huntington, West Virginia. In 2013, Champion Industries sold The Herald-Dispatch to Douglas Reynolds, West Virginia 17th legislative district House of Delegates representative. The Herald-Dispatch, founded in 1909, also publishes the Putnam Herald and the Lawrence Herald, more localized editions of The Herald-Dispatch serving Putnam County, West Virginia and Lawrence County, Ohio.

Panoramic Publishing/Laker Newspaper sold on Lake Winnipesaukee

The sale of The Panoramic Publishing Group, publisher of the weekly Laker newspaper and 10 other ancillary publications, to Daniel L. Smiley, general manager of Turner Publishing in Turner, ME has been completed.

Brad Lipe had been only the second owner in the 30-year history of the publishing company located in the heart of Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire’s most famous lake and summer home to former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Lipe has launched a variety of publications to complement the Laker which is published weekly 24 times a year from Mother’s Day to Columbus Day, including year-round dining guides in New Hampshire and Maine, Boating on the Lakes of New Hampshire and Laker at Home Magazine to name a few.

John Szefc of W.B Grimes & Company represented Lipe in the sale.

Smiley has also acquired the newspaper’s office building at 83 Center St. in Wolfeboro Falls. Lipe said that Smiley, who has over 30 years of experience in newspaper, printing, publishing, advertising and direct-mail, is the perfect candidate to succeed him and the newspaper’s founders, Kathy and Dick Eaton, from whom Lipe acquired the Laker in 2001. Smiley has spent the last 16 years working with Turner Publishing where the team has created Maine’s largest direct-mail newspaper company reaching over half a million Maine residents with their seventeen community publications.