Dix Communications sells 5 dailies and 18 weeklies in Ohio to growing GateHouse Media

Dix Communications, which owned five daily newspapers and 18 weeklies in northeast and east-central Ohio, has sold all its newspapers and related websites to the burgeoning chain GateHouse Media, Gatehouse announced today. "In addition to the print publications, the acquisition includes a number of niche publications, websites and a commercial printing operation. Jim Hopson, who recently served as the interim publisher in Columbus, Ohio, has been appointed interim group publisher of GateHouse North-Central Ohio and will oversee the new division."

Dix Communications, founded in 1893, has been owned by five generations of Dix family members, reports Editor & Publisher. "Dix operations include a printing facility in Wooster and more than 30 daily and weekly newspapers, online-only publications and specialty publications. The largest newspapers are the Record-Courier in Kent, The Daily Record in Wooster, The Ashland Times-Gazette, The Alliance Review and The Daily Jeffersonian in Cambridge." Last year the family sold its only Kentucky paper, The State Journal in Frankfort, to Boone Newspapers.

G. Charles Dix II, who served as president and CEO of Dix Communications, told reporters, “We feel GateHouse has the regional and national scale necessary to advance the publishing industry and care for our communities with local news and advertising."