Cox Enterprises agrees to sell 13 N.C. newspapers
Cox Enterprises Inc., the owner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has agreed to sell 13 newspapers in North Carolina to Cooke Communications LLC, a privately held family company headed by the son of late billionaire Jack Kent Cooke.
The announced sale of The Daily Reflector (Greenville), Rocky Mount Telegram, The Daily Advance (Elizabeth City) and 10 weeklies in eastern North Carolina, is the continuation of Cox’s plan, announced last year, to divest itself of most of the daily and non-daily newspapers in its chain, except for those in Atlanta, Palm Beach area and Ohio.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Cox Enterprises recently sold The Lufkin Daily News and The Daily Sentinel (Nacogdoches, Texas), and the company plans to complete its sale of the Waco Tribune-Herald, as well as The Daily Sentinel and The Nickel (Grand Junction, Colo.) in the upcoming weeks.
The company said it is seeking buyers for its remaining Texas publications: Austin American-Statesman, the Longview News-Journal and several others.
Citigroup and Dirks, Van Essen & Murray have been retained to assist Cox Enterprises in selling the newspapers.
