San Diego County Weeklies Group Is Sold

West Coast Community Newspapers, publisher of 14 weeklies in San Diego County, has been sold to USMedia Group, a division of Central Valley Publishing, which owns daily newspapers in Central and Southern California. The sale was announced at an employees’ meeting at West Coast’s plant in Carlsbad. The price of the deal was not disclosed. Officials with USMedia, based in Crystal City, Mo., said there would be no layoffs from the purchase, which also includes a commercial printing business. The newspapers, which are free and supported by advertising, serve Coronado, Chula Vista, La Jolla, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Del Mar, Carmel Valley, Solana Beach and Rancho Santa Fe, among other cities. The company also purchased weeklies on Catalina Island and in Santa Cruz; and a twice-weekly boating newspaper, the Log, that covers the Southern California coastline. West Coast Community Newspapers, a wholly owned subsidiary of Independent Newspapers, a New Zealand company, was organized in 1990 around the purchase of San Diego County’s North Coast Community Newspapers.