The family that has owned the
Frederick News-Post
since 1883 is selling the publication to Ogden Newspapers, another family-owned newspaper company. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
An article in the
News-Post
said “the deal will allow the Randall family to pay off their debt from the purchase of the
News-Post
building and the printing press.” The paper moved into its current, 144,000-square-foot facility with a new printing press in 2008.
“We weathered a lot of economic ups and downs during our 133 years. The recession that hit in 2008 was a perfect storm. It was hard for many industries but newspapers took a double whammy, when banks eliminated media companies from their portfolios just as the industry faced huge changes and challenges,” family board members Ruth Ann Randall and Deedee Luttrell said in a statement.
“While this is only one of [the] businesses we've owned, this has been the longest running one. This has been the one that has allowed us to have the most positive impact on the community. So it holds a special place in our hearts,” CEO Will Randall told the
News-Post
.
The Randall family owns local real estate. It owned The Job Shop for several years and had a web development company, the
News-Post
article said.
The family plans to maintain a management and investment office and is considering plans to invest in mature businesses in Frederick County, the report said.
Randall's great-great-grandfather, William T. Delaplaine, printed
The
News
for the first time on Oct. 15, 1883. Five generations of his descendants have worked at the paper, the article said.
In 1910, the Great Southern Printing and Manufacturing Co., the parent company of
The News
, acquired a competitor,
The Frederick Post
. The
Post
published in the morning and
The News
in the evening. In 2002, the company combined the two papers into a single publication,
The Frederick News-Post
, and launched a Sunday edition.
The Randall family bought out the Delaplaine family's partial ownership in 2001. (Source:
Frederick News-Post
, April 29, 2017.)
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