Jerry Healey and Ann Macari Healey, who owned the Littleton Independent, Highlands Ranch Herald and Englewood Herald for most of the 1990s, have repurchased the weeklies and bought nine other Colorado newspapers from Houston-based ASP Westward.
Macari-Healey Publishing Co., of Golden, announced Monday that it purchased Community Media of Colorado, owner of the papers, from ASP Westward. Terms of the deal reached Friday weren’t disclosed.
Jerry Healey is president and chief executive of Macari-Healey Publishing. CMC president Jim Diaz will remain general manager.
CMC publishes a dozen community newspapers with distribution to more than 125,000 households along Colorado’s Front Range south of Denver and north of Colorado Springs. The papers include the Castle Rock News-Press, the Centennial Citizen, the Elbert County News, the Lone Tree Voice and the Parker Chronicle.
“Community media is more relevant than ever and we plan on increasing the relevance of our newspapers and websites over the coming months,” Healey said in a statement. “My family and I are looking forward to the challenges and fulfillment that owning this company will bring.”
He added that “community is the only focus we have with our newspapers and digital media. Community newspapers and their websites are flourishing throughout the country.”
The Healeys — whose background was in daily newspapers and then community papers — bought the Littleton Independent, Highlands Ranch Herald and Englewood Herald in 1992. They sold the papers in 1997 to Westward Communications, owner of the News-Press and other papers. ASP Westward had owned CMC since 2002.
Healey also is president of MetroNorth and Mile High Newspapers, which own the Golden Transcript, Lakewood Sentinel and a handful of other weekly, metro-area papers with a total circulation of more than 85,000.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
