Cox Enterprises, the Atlanta-based media conglomerate that built a multibillion-dollar business from a single Ohio newspaper, announced Wednesday that it plans to sell all but three of its newspaper holdings.

The company will retain flagship newspapers in Dayton, Ohio; West Palm Beach, Fla.; and Atlanta — including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution — but sell dozens of daily and weekly newspapers in Colorado, North Carolina and Texas.

Company officials did not disclose an asking price for the properties but said revenue from the sales will be used to pay down debt and free up capital for other investments.

Cox will also sell Valpak, the company's nationwide direct-mail advertising division, officials said.

Sandy Schwartz, the Cox president over the newspaper division, said the company has no plans to sell its newspapers in Atlanta, Dayton and West Palm Beach, which are moving aggressively to contain costs and establish strong online readerships.

The sale comes amid slumping revenues and declining values for newspapers across the country as print media lose market share to the Internet.

Cox now earns only 20 percent of its revenues from its newspaper, television and radio properties; the rest comes from more profitable cable and auto auction operations.

Cox Communications, the company's cable operation, is the nation's third-largest cable provider. Manheim Inc. is one of the world's largest used car exchanges.

James M. Cox, a former schoolteacher, founded the company in 1898 with the purchase of a daily newspaper in Dayton. The company rode the profitability of newspapers for decades before diversifying into radio, television and then cable.

Today, the company has revenues of $15 billion and employs 83,000 people.

Jim Kennedy, grandson of James M. Cox and CEO and chairman of Cox, said newspapers were an important part of Cox's history. But Kennedy said the sale would help the company "maintain our strong and stable financial performance."

"Local newspapers play a valuable role in the communities they serve, and we are confident that the publications we are selling and those we continue to operate will continue to provide timely, valuable and trustworthy news," Kennedy said.

The Austin American-Statesman, acquired by Cox in 1976, is the largest paper put up for sale by Cox, with a daily circulation of 150,000.

Austin Associate Publisher Michael Vivio, who informed the newspaper's 925 employees of the sale Wednesday, said the staff was surprised the Statesman was included in the sale because the newspaper has been profitable in a difficult economy.

"We have always been a lean operation, and we are in a good market," Vivio said.

John Morton, a newspaper analyst who has consulted for Cox, said the sale suggested that Cox, like other media companies across the country, has lost faith in the ability of newspapers to rebound after several years of steady declines.

"Will the market get better?" Morton said. "Clearly some companies, and Cox, have concluded that it won't."

Most newspaper properties have lost half their value in just five years, Morton said.

Several other media companies have recently announced the sale of newspaper properties, including Copley Press Inc., which is selling the San Diego Union-Tribune, and Landmark Communications, which is offering for sale regional newspapers in North Carolina and Virginia.

Outside the recent $650 million sale of Newsday in New York, little else is selling.

News Corp., which bought Dow Jones, recently took Dow's Ottaway chain of small newspapers off the selling block after more than six months on the market.

"You are selling at the bottom of the market," Morton said.

Schwartz, called it a "tough market" for newspapers. But he said the Cox newspapers to be sold are some "really attractive properties."

"I expect there will be a number of buyers lining up," Schwartz said. Cox has hired Citigroup to manage the sale of its newspapers and Goldman Sachs to market Valpak.

Schwartz said he did not expect the first sale to occur before the first quarter of 2009.