Media Executive in Texas to Buy Pasadena Paper

William Dean Singleton has agreed to buy the Pasadena Star-News and a group of smaller affiliated newspapers in California from Knight-Ridder Inc. for $55 million, the communications company said today.

Singleton, who has interests in 22 other dailies, including the Houston Post and the Denver Post through MediaNews Group Inc. of Houston, will form Pasadena Newspapers Inc. to purchase the properties, an assistant said.

The sale to Singleton, who is vice chairman and chief executive officer of MediaNews, includes four semiweekly newspapers in Southern California--the Arcadia Tribune, the Duartean, the Monrovia News-Post and the Temple City Times, Knight-Ridder said. The four newspapers are part of Foothill Intercity Newspapers and have a combined circulation of 23,600, Knight-Ridder spokeswoman Lee Ann Schlatter said.