MEDIA

Advance Agrees to Buy Publisher: The privately held media company controlled by the Newhouse family agreed to acquire American City Business Journals Inc., a Charlotte, N.C., publisher of 28 local weekly business newspapers, for about $268.8 million, the companies said. The agreement calls for Staten Island, N.Y.-based Advance Publications Inc. to pay $28 per share for American City Business Journals’ 9.6 million common shares. Advance owns 22 daily newspapers; book publisher Random House; publishes the New Yorker magazine, and is the owner of Conde Nast, publisher of Vogue, Vanity Fair and other magazines. The deal should be completed in October, American City spokesman Grant Hamrick said. The deal is “primarily motivated by the desire of the principal stockholders to get some liquidity in their investment,” he said. American City common stock, traded on the Nasdaq stock market, shot up $4.50 Friday to close at $26.25 a share.