Printer Purchases Weekly ‘Reporter’

The company that has printed the Ventura County Reporter for the past 11 years bought the 20,000-circulation weekly, it was announced Tuesday.

Nancy S. Cloutier, owner and publisher of the free weekly, sold the newspaper to Mike Flannery, owner of Valley Printers Inc. The Sylmar-based company also printed the Ventura Independent, which ceased publication this month.

The Reporter, which served the Ventura area for more than 20 years, had a lively rivalry with the upstart Independent.

Cloutier said she is happy about the sale. “It was a good deal, and I felt like this was the right thing for me at this time,” she said.

Cloutier will stay on as publisher of the paper, she said. “It will be a smaller workload, and I know Mike and he has great ideas. I was happy to sell the paper to him.”

The new owner will immediately increase distribution to 30,000 papers countywide and will add staff, she said. The name of the newspaper will not change.