SHAMOKIN - Times-Shamrock Communications announced Monday that it is marketing The News-Item, along with some of its other daily newspapers and alternative newsweeklies, for sale.
"The News-Item has been a strong, profitable investment for us for many years," said George Lynett Jr., CEO of Times-Shamrock Communications. "As we look to diversify our family's holdings and reinvest in our core northeast Pennsylvania market, it made sense for us to offer The News-Item for sale to someone who could take it to the next level of growth."
Henry H. Nyce, publisher of The News-Item, said, "We've been here serving the Shamokin-Mount Carmel area and surrounding communities for more than 100 years. We are here now, with more readers than ever in our history, and we will be here in the future," he said, noting growth of The News-Item's online readership.
"We're very proud of our achievements and excited about continually serving our communities in the future," he said.
The sale process will be handled by Cribb, Green and Associates, a leading merger and acquisition firm in the U.S. newspaper industry.
Times-Shamrock purchased The News-Item in 1997.
Other dailies up for sale by Times-Shamrock are the Towanda Daily & Sunday Review; the Petersburg (Va.) Progress-Index and the Virgin Islands Daily News.
Weeklies for sale include The Citizen-Standard, a newspaper in Valley View, Schuylkill County, that's long been affiliated with The News-Item; and the company's alternative newsweeklies: City Paper, Baltimore, Md., the Orlando (Fla.) Weekly, the San Antonio (Texas) Current, the Cleveland (Ohio) Scene and the MetroTimes, Detroit, Mich.