James Boone
The Oxford Eagle has announced they have agreed to sell the paper to the Boone Newspapers Group.
In their on-line announcement they said:
“An agreement for the sale of The Oxford Eagle by members of the Phillips and Vasilyev families of Oxford has been reached in principle. Work to complete the transaction is under way. The buyer will be a newly formed Mississippi entity, Oxford Newsmedia, LLC. Oxford Newsmedia, a subsidiary of Boone Newspapers, Inc. (BNI) and Carpenter Newsmedia, LLC (CNL), will publish The Eagle, its website and all affiliate publications.”
An industry source tells HottyToddy.com that the Boone Group, headquartered in Northport, Ala. will take control and begin publishing the Oxford Eagle as soon as May 1.
HottyToddy.com has reported that a request to reserve the name Oxford Newsmedia LLC was delivered by FedEx to the state Secretary of State’s office March 11, and filed March 12, by attorneys representing Boone Newspapers Group.
HottyToddy.Com has attempted repeatedly to contact senior leadership with the Boone Group, including COO Todd Carperter and Chairman of the Board James Boone, to confirm the start date, but they have not returned calls. Calls to Oxford Eagle ownership have also not been returned.
Todd Carpenter
James B. Boone, Jr. of Tuscaloosa is Chairman of the Board of Boone Newspapers, headquartered in Northport Ala., while Todd H. Carpenter of Natchez is president and chief operating officer. Most recently, Boone Newspapers expanded its Mississippi holdings with the purchase of the Brookhaven, Miss., Daily Leader and the Vicksburg, Miss., Post.
The Oxford Eagle’s history dates to the last year of the Civil War. The Oxford Falcon, early forerunner of the Eagle, was established by Samuel More Thompson in 1865 with the motto “Truth is a weapon with which we fight.”
The Journal, Inc., owner of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal and a group of Northeast Mississippi weeklies, has published and mailed the first issue of its new Oxford weekly paper the Oxford Citizen. The publication has been mailed to all 21,600 Lafayette County households, and will be closely followed by a weekly “shopper,” all-advertising publication.
Observers say the newspaper and shopper are efforts by Journal, Inc. to blunt the arrival of the Boone group, which controls newspapers throughout the South,
Andy Knef is editor of HottyToddy.com