HD Media LLC has agreed to acquire AIM Media Midwest’s Ohio and AIM Media Indiana’s publishing operations. The transaction includes 25 publications serving communities throughout western and central Ohio and southern and central Indiana. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
The Indiana operation includes six publications: The Republic, Columbus; Daily Journal, Franklin; Daily Reporter, Greenfield; The Tribune, Seymour; Brown County Democrat, Nashville; and The Times-Post, Pendleton.
The Ohio group includes 19 publications: The Lima News, Lima; Sidney Daily News, Sidney; Miami Valley Today, Troy and Piqua; The Bryan Times, Bryan; Sentinel-Tribune, Bowling Green; Urbana Daily Citizen, Urbana; Wilmington News Journal, Wilmington; Northwest Signal, Napoleon; The Daily Advocate and Early Bird, Greenville and Darke County; Xenia Daily Gazette, Xenia; Record Herald, Washington Court House and Fayette County; Delaware Gazette, Delaware; The Times-Gazette, Hillsboro and Highland County; The Register-Herald, Eaton; Morrow County Sentinel, Mount Gilead; Galion Inquirer, Galion; Fairborn Daily Herald, Fairborn; and Beavercreek News-Current, Beavercreek.
HD Media will assume ownership effective Sept. 1.
“We aren’t buying newspapers because we’re nostalgic for the way the world used to be,” HD Media Managing Partner Doug Reynolds said. “We’re buying them because we believe community newspapers have a future.”
“Some of these publications have earned the trust of their communities for more than 200 years,” Reynolds said. “We have worked with our friends at AIM Media for years and know firsthand their commitment to quality journalism. Our philosophy is simple: think globally and act locally. We can provide the resources of a larger organization, but these newspapers must continue to belong to the communities they serve.”
HD Media, headquartered in Charleston, West Virginia currently operates 10 newspapers in West Virginia and Ohio, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Gazette-Mail, The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington and the twice-weekly Portsmouth Daily Times in Portsmouth, Ohio. HD Media acquired the Portsmouth Daily Times from AIM Media in 2023.