By Staff
Special to The Meridian Star
Dec. 15, 2001
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. has announced an agreement in principle to purchase the Ottumwa Courier, a 16,500-circulation daily newspaper in Ottumwa, Iowa., from Liberty Group Publishing Inc.
The Courier will become the anchor newspaper in an existing cluster of four cnhi newspapers in southeastern Iowa. The purchase will bring the Birmingham-based newspaper holdings to 10 daily and weekly newspapers in the state.
Ken Serota, president and CEO of Liberty Newspapers, agreed. "It makes great sense for Ottumwa to belong to a group that has clustering potential," he said. "Liberty has no other properties in southeast Iowa."
Other cnhi newspapers in Iowa are in the northwestern and extreme eastern portions of the state.
cnhi owns more than 200 newspapers and related holdings in 20 states, including six newspapers in Mississippi The Meridian Star, The Newton Record, the Laurel Leader-Call, the Wayne County News, the Picayune Item and the Kosciusko Star-Herald.