Type Private Key people Scott T. Champion, CEO Headquarters Miamisburg Parent organization Versa Capital Management | Industry Newspapers Website ohcommedia.com Founded 3 September 2010 | |
Area served Illinois, Missouri, Ohio | ||
Ohio Community Media is an American privately owned publisher of daily and weekly newspapers, primarily in the state of Ohio. It is headquartered in the Dayton suburb of Miamisburg, Ohio, and owned by Philadelphia-based Versa Capital Management.
Contents
History
Most of the company's holdings comprise the Ohio core of Brown Publishing Company, a family-owned publisher based in Cincinnati that declared bankruptcy in April 2010. In September of that year, Brown's 14 Ohio dailies and about 50 weekly publications were transferred to Ohio Community Media, a new entity owned by Brown's creditors, in a transaction valued at $21.75 million.
Over the next few months, the new company sold a "mini-empire" of business newsweeklies that Brown had assembled starting in 2007, unloading titles in such far-flung cities as Charleston, South Carolina; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Fort Worth, Texas; and Naperville, Illinois.
Versa completed its purchase of Ohio Community Media for an undisclosed price in May 2011. By this point, the chain consisted of 14 daily newspapers and about 30 weeklies, all in Ohio.
In February 2012, Versa purchased Impressions Media, owner of The Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and in May of that year it bought four Midwestern dailies formerly owned by Freedom Communications. That purchase included The Lima News in Ohio, as well as dailies in Illinois and Missouri. The four dailies acquired from Freedom were integrated into Ohio Community Media.
Holdings
Ohio Community Media publishes 18 daily newspapers and about 30 weeklies (paid and free), in addition to several free weekly shopper publications. The Beavercreek News-Current, now a weekly, was formerly a daily publication.