Acquisition Called an Investment : Washington Post Buys 17% of Cowles Media Co.

Washington Post Co. said Thursday that it had acquired a 17% interest in privately held Cowles Media Co. from Kingsley H. Murphy Jr. and his family, descendants of the founding family of the Minneapolis Tribune.

A Washington Post spokesman declined to give the purchase price but did say it was a cash transaction. He said the company, which owns the Washington Post newspaper and Newsweek news-magazine, purchased the interest in Cowles as an “investment” and does not plan to seek a seat on the board of directors.

Cowles Media owns the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, three smaller daily newspapers in South Dakota, Montana and Idaho and a group of suburban newspapers in Denver. It also owns a commercial printing and directory business.

Murphy’s father, the late Kingsley Murphy Sr., had owned the Minneapolis Tribune newspaper until it was sold to the Cowles family in 1941. Three years ago, the Minneapolis Tribune, a morning paper, was merged with the Minneapolis Star, an afternoon paper also owned by Cowles. Last November, Kingsley Murphy Jr. said he intended to sell his family’s 17% stake in Cowles Media. In the wake of that announcement, Cowles’ Chairman David Kruidenier disclosed that a voting trust controlled by him and four others had raised its ownership position from 44% to more than 50%.

In January, Murphy sued five past and current directors for $40 million, claiming, among other things, that the voting trust’s increased stake had sharply diminished the value of his shares by erecting a stiff barrier to a potential takeover.

Kruidenier, who is also chief executive of Cowles Media and a third-generation Cowles family member, said in a statement that the sale of the Murphy family’s stake “in no way changes the position of the voting trust. . . . The company has not been for sale and is not for sale now. While we have had no discussions with the Post about their purchase, we are sure that they understand our position about the future of Cowles Media.”