PORT ANGELES — Black Press, parent company of Sound Publishing Co. and the North Kitsap Herald, has purchased the Peninsula Daily News and Sequim This Week from Horvitz Newspapers.
The announcement was made Monday to Peninsula Daily News employees by Peter Horvitz, president of Horvitz Newspapers, LLC, and Mark Warner of Black Press, Ltd., owners of Sound Publishing based in Poulsbo. The ownership change took effect today.
Terms were not disclosed. The purchase includes the real estate and press, Horvitz said. The Peninsula Daily News has a circulation of 14,000 Monday through Friday and 16,000 on Sunday, and has about 100 employees, Horvitz said. John Brewer is the publisher.
The Peninsula Daily News will be operated by Sound Publishing, which has 46 publications and a combined circulation of 732,700 in the Pacific Northwest. Sound Publishing is the largest community newspaper group in the Pacific Northwest.
Sound newspapers include the Bainbridge Island Review, North Kitsap Herald, Kingston Community News, Bremerton Patriot, Central Kitsap Reporter, Port Orchard Independent, Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber, The Journal of the San Juan Islands, The Islands’ Sounder, Whidbey News-Times, South Whidbey Record, Kitsap Navy News and Whidbey Crosswind. Sound also publishes community newspapers in east and south King County, and Portland, Ore.; and a printing facility in Everett.
Sound’s corporate office is in Poulsbo.
Privately held Black Press, Ltd. owns about 150 publications, including three daily newspapers, the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal, the (Honolulu) Star Advertiser and the Advocate (Red Deer, Alberta). The other publications are in suburban or rural markets throughout the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
“We have purchased other titles from Horvitz Newspapers in the past and look forward to adding the Peninsula Daily News and its related titles to our Sound group,” said David Black, president of Black Press, Ltd. “As publishers of other titles in the area, this acquisition is a natural extension to our marketplace footprint. We are pleased to be doing business in Clallam and Jefferson counties.”
The family-owned Horvitz Newspapers, based in Bellevue, purchased the Peninsula Daily News from Persis Corporation in 1994.
“Our family has enjoyed owning the Peninsula Daily News for 17 years, and we’re very proud of its employees and their commitment to serving the news and information needs of the Clallam and Jefferson County communities and the quality journalism they provide,” Horvitz said. “We’re delighted that Black Press has chosen to add the Peninsula Daily News and Sequim This Week to its family of Pacific Northwest publications.”
In an interview with the Herald, Horvitz said of the Peninsula Daily News staff, “I’m very porud of that staff and that newspaper. They cover that community extremely well.”
The sale marks the beginning of retirement from newspapers for Horvitz, who was publisher of the Marin Independent Journal from 1987-1993 before becoming president and CEO of Horvitz Newspapers in 1994.
In 2006, Horvitz Newspapers sold two local weeklies, seven twice-monthlies, a printing press in Kent, and the company’s flagship suburban daily King County Journal to Black Press. Sound Publishing converted the King County Journal into a group of community papers and increased the frequency of publication of the twice-monthlies.
“I think they did a very good job,” Horvitz said of Sound Publishing and the King County newspapers. “I’m confident they’ll do a good job at the Peninsula Daily News.”
