Firm to Acquire Publisher of Daily Pilot Newspaper
The publisher of two Orange County newspapers, the Daily Pilot and the Huntington Beach Independent, have agreed to sell the company to Adams Communications Corp., a media chain with headquarters in Minneapolis and Florida.
A story appearing on the front page of the Thursday afternoon edition of the Daily Pilot reported that Ingersoll Publications Co. has reached an agreement to sell its Orange Coast Publishing Co. subsidiary, which owns the two papers.
Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed in the Pilot story. In an interview late Thursday, Rosemary Churchman, publisher of the Daily Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent, declined to discuss the agreement and said additional financial information would not be made available.
“I hope to ensure a smooth transition for the benefit of our readers, advertisers and our employees,” Churchman was quoted as saying in the Pilot story.
Ingersoll acquired the Daily Pilot, a Costa Mesa-based suburban paper with a daily circulation of 30,000, in 1983 from Times Mirror Co., the owner of the Los Angeles Times. The Huntington Beach Independent is a weekly paper with circulation of 52,000 in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley. Together, the publications employ 200 persons.
As part of the transaction with New Jersey-based Ingersoll, Adams Communications has agreed to purchase the Daily Tribune in the Royal Oak suburb of Detroit. Founded in 1902, the newspaper has a 40,000 daily circulation in 14 southeast Oakland County communities. Ingersoll acquired the newspaper in 1978.
Adams Communications, owned by Minneapolis soft-drink bottler Stephen Adams, was formed in 1983 with the purchase of WLIX-TV in Lansing, Mich. One of the nation’s fastest growing media companies, its holdings include Chicago magazine, a number of television and radio stations and an outdoor advertising firm.
Adams Communications, which has corporate headquarters in both Clearwater, Fla., and Wayzata, Minn., bought the Macomb Daily, another suburban Detroit paper with 53,000 circulation, in 1987.
