ap, owner of The Denver Post, said Friday it will acquire Lehman Communications, owner of the Longmont Times-Call, in a move that will boost its presence in northern Colorado.
Prairie Mountain Publishing Co., a MediaNews subsidiary, will acquire Lehman’s three daily and four weekly papers. The purchase is expected to close before the end of the month.
“It is an excellent fit, and we were happy to get to do it,” said William Dean Singleton, chairman and chief executive of MediaNews. “We are in Boulder, and these are the next two newspapers up.”
A sales price was not disclosed, although Singleton said outside financing was not required to complete the purchase.
Lehman buildings in Loveland, Cañon City and Longmont were included, along with new printing presses in Berthoud and presses in Cañon City, said Dean Lehman, president of Lehman Communications.
“It is going to be a time of change, of course, but I think it will be a good change,” he said. “It will provide new opportunities and new ideas, and we are looking forward to working with MediaNews and Prairie Mountain.”
Besides the Times-Call, which has a daily circulation of 19,759, Lehman publishes the Loveland Reporter-Herald, with a daily circulation of 15,905, and the Cañon City Record, with a daily circulation of 6,356.
Lehman also publishes the Colorado Hometown Weekly, with 20,200 circulation in Lafayette, Louisville and Erie; the Longmont Weekly, with circulation of 19,800 in Longmont, Niwot and Firestone; and the RH Weekly, with a circulation of 19,600 in Loveland.
Other publications include Longmont Magazine, Loveland Today and the Royal Gorge Shopping News.
Singleton said he has been trying for 21 years to buy the northern Colorado publishing group.
“After having talked to them many times, they came to us,” he said.
MediaNews is known for “clustering,” or owning multiple media properties in a region.
The strategy allows newspapers to combine back-office operations like accounting and billing, and to gain economies of scale, said Maryland- based newspaper analyst John Morton.
By clustering, a newspaper group can provide advertisers with a broader audience in a given market. That has become a more important consideration as retailers consolidate.
“Local retail outlets are part of regional or national chains, and they tend to favor advertising in papers that can offer them several markets,” Morton said.
Prairie Mountain publishes all of MediaNews’ newspapers in the state other than The Denver Post. Those include the Daily Camera in Boulder, the Journal-Advocate in Sterling, The Fort Morgan Times, The Colorado Daily and nine weekly publications concentrated on the Eastern Plains.
Singleton told employees of the Times-Call that the deal will provide better access to syndicates and advertising deals.
Lehman Communications has about 260 employees. They were told that no immediate staffing changes were planned.
Dean Lehman has taken over as publisher of the three daily newspapers from his father, Ed, who will become publisher emeritus.
The Lehman family acquired the Times-Call, one of the state’s oldest newspapers, in 1957 and the Reporter-Herald in 1967.
Denver-based ap publishes 61 daily newspapers and approximately 100 nondaily publications in 13 states and ranks as the second-largest newspaper company in circulation.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
