Journal of Commerce to Change Hands

Commonwealth Business Media Inc. said it would buy the Journal of Commerce Group, which publishes the weekly successor to the business daily of the same name, and a group of publications for the trade and transportation industries. Terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1827 by inventor and entrepreneur Samuel F.B. Morse, the Journal of Commerce began as a New York shipping daily. The Journal of Commerce Group was purchased in 1995 by London’s Economist Group, an associate company of Britain’s Pearson.

Commonwealth Business Media was formed last October in a management-led buyout of Primedia Information Inc. It is a provider of information to the international trade and transportation market, as well as the performing arts and commercial credit industries.