Local media owners purchase St. Helens Chronicle

Published 4:00 pm Saturday, February 28, 2009

The owner of several newspapers on the North Oregon Coast recently added the St. Helens Chronicle and Sentinel Mist to its publication line-up.

According to a press release from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, Country Media purchased the newspapers in early February. The principal shareholders of Country Media are north coast residents Steve and Carol Hungerford.

For Country Media, the purchase brings its ownership of Oregon

newspapers to five.

In the past two and one-half years, Country Media has acquired four

other Oregon newspapers: Seaside Signal, Cannon Beach Gazette, the Tillamook Headlight-Herald, and Lincoln City News

Guard.

Country Media, organized in 2000, also owns eight community weeklies in

North and South Dakota and Montana.

The sale of the St. Helens Chronicle to Country Media was handled by Tom

Mauldin of W.B. Grimes & Company. Terms of the transaction were not

disclosed.

“We wouldn’t be making this investment if we didn’t believe in the

future of community newspapers,” said Steve Hungerford.