Former Republic Monitor Editor Ryan Squibb inked a deal to purchase the newspaper from Community Publishers Inc. effective Sept. 24.
The community newspaper is the fourth feather in the cap of Squibb Media LLC, which has purchased three additional newspapers in just two years. Squibb broke with the Monitor in late 2012 to form the Mount Vernon-based company, purchasing the Lawrence County Record that December and buying Willard's Cross Cut Times and the Ash Grove Commonwealth the following February.
Declining to disclose terms of the sale, Squibb said he paid less than $1 million for the weekly newspaper in western Greene County.
"They approached me within the last couple months with the idea," he said. "At first I thought I was too busy, but we figured out a way to make it work. They made me an appealing offer, so I went with it.
"I really like Republic; it's an up-and-coming town in a great location. I'm excited about the things we can accomplish there."
Part of CPI's Neighbor News division, Publisher Dave Berry said the timing was right for all parties.
"I think Ryan will have a good opportunity to excel with the product in ways we were not," he said, noting Squibb Media would have less overhead cost. "To use a baseball analogy, everyone likes to remember the famous trades where one team gets a Hall of Famer and the other gets a footnote in history.
"The best trades in baseball are when general managers who like to deal with other general managers do a deal that works so they can deal again in the future. This is that deal."
CPI retained one long-time employee in the sale, while Squibb Media takes on a two-person editorial staff and one ad executive. Squibb said he currently is looking to hire a graphic designer.
CPI – a newspaper and Internet publisher and commercial printing company with 18 publications and three printing plants across Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma – had owned the weekly newspaper since 2004. With a circulation of about 1,700, Oct. 1 will be the Monitor's first issue under new management.[[In-content Ad]]
Moseley’s Discount Office Products was purchased; Side Chick opened in Branson; and the Springfield franchise store of NoBaked Cookie Dough changed ownership.
