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V.I. Daily News on the Auction Block

Management at the Virgin Islands Daily News learned Monday that the newspaper is up for sale, the same day its parent company, Times-Shamrock Communications, made the announcement that it is selling the paper along with several other of its media holdings.

Both the Daily News and the chain’s flagship paper, The Times-Tribune in Scranton, Penn., carried stories about the move on Tuesday.

According to those reports, Times-Shamrock, which is headquartered in Scranton, is scaling back and divesting holdings far from its base in order to concentrate on its radio stations and its publications in northeast Pennsylvania.

The company purchased the Virgin Islands Daily News in 2008.

Founded in 1930 by St. Thomas natives J. Antonio Jarvis and Ariel Melchior Sr., the Daily News has dominated the media field on the island for most of its 83 years of continuous publication. For about half its life, it was run chiefly by members of the Melchior family. The national newspaper chain Gannett Co. purchased it in 1978, and in 1997 it was bought by businessman Jeffrey Prosser’s Innovative Communication Corp. When Prosser’s holdings went through bankruptcy, Times-Shamrock stepped in to purchase the newspaper.

Besides the V.I. paper, Times-Shamrock wants to sell three other dailies, Towanda Daily Review and Sunday Review, The Shamokin News-Item, and the Petersburg Progress-Index, as well as five weekly publications, the City Paper in Baltimore, the Orlando Weekly, the San Antonio Current, the Cleveland Scene and the Detroit Metro Times, according to the Times-Tribune article.

The sale of the daily papers is being handled by one newspaper brokerage and that of the weeklies by another, leading to speculation that each type could be offered as a block.

“Buyers may be interested in one, several or all of the properties, and Times-Shamrock will consider their proposals on a case-by-case basis,” said Jason Robbins, publisher of the Virgin Islands Daily News. Robbins responded in an email to questions the Source had emailed to George Lynett Jr., chief executive of Times-Shamrock.

Citing confidentiality concerns, Robbins declined to divulge the asking price for the Daily News, should it be sold separately.

“The properties to be sold have drawn interest from a number of qualified potential buyers but the sale process is not far enough along to share any details,” Robbins wrote.

As for the target date for a sale, he said, “the sale process can be fluid and unpredictable, but we anticipate a timetable of six to 12 months at most of the properties.”

The Times-Tribune article quotes Lynett saying, “All of these papers have been strong, profitable investments for us for many years. … While it was difficult we had to make the decision to sell off some properties so that we could continue to invest and expand in radio and our home market.”

Robbins said, “Times-Shamrock has placed a priority on identifying prospective buyers who would be good stewards for the companies being sold and who would foster and support continued growth opportunities for our publications and our employees.”

Sale of the Daily News and the other three daily papers is being handled by Cribb, Greene & Associates, a merger and acquisitions firm specializing in media properties.

Management at the Daily News were told of the decision to sell the paper on “Monday (Aug.26),” according to Robbins.

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