Glacier Media Inc. is acquiring three daily and 20 weekly and bi-weekly newspapers from Postmedia Network Inc.’s British Columbia holdings for gross proceeds of $86.5 million.
The dailies include the Times Colonist, Nanaimo Daily News and Alberni Valley Times. The smaller community papers include North Shore News, Vancouver Courier and Surrey Now.
“The transaction allows us to pay down debt and focus on our core properties, the ongoing transformation of our, organization and growth areas of our business,” said Paul Godfrey, Postmedia president and CEO, in a statement.
“Postmedia’s business strategy for Fiscal 2012 is transformation and revenue development,” said Godfrey. “As we look ahead, our success will be in finding new opportunities for growth while transforming our organization to meet the very real changes in our industry. We remain committed to our digital first focus now and into the future.”
The deal, which Postmedia said is the result of an unsolicited offer and is expected to close Nov. 30, does not include Postmedia’s Vancouver Sun, The Province or the company’s Windsor-Essex community newspapers.
