The North Coast Citizen, a 1,500-circulation biweekly newspaper serving Manzanita and other coastal towns in northern Tillamook County, is being sold by the parent company of The Daily Astorian to Country Media Inc., publisher of the Tillamook Headlight Herald.

As part of the sale agreement, Country Media has agreed to a long-term contract to print seven of its newspapers on the presses of the Astorian. Those papers include the Headlight-Herald, Lincoln City News-Guard, St. Helens Chronicle, St. Helens News-Advertiser, Seaside Signal, Cannon Beach Gazette and the Citizen.

The North Coast Citizen was purchased from Dave and Jan Fisher in 2007 by East Oregonian Publishing Co., the Astorians parent company. Dave Fisher is currently editor of the Citizen.

The sale is expected to be completed by July 1. 

When the sale closes, East Oregonian Publishing Co. will discontinue the Cannon Beach Citizen, a related bimonthly newspaper that is distributed along with the North Coast Citizen.

This agreement with Country Media will strengthen our companys position. Choices like this are never easy, but the printing agreement provides us with a good return on our recent investment in new press equipment in Astoria, said Steve Forrester, publisher of The Daily Astorian and chief executive officer of East Oregonian Publishing Co. 

We greatly appreciate the patronage of our readers and advertisers in Manzanita and Cannon Beach. We will continue to serve them through The Daily Astorian, Coast Weekend and our websites, Forrester said.

Both companies involved in the transaction are private, family-owned businesses. The sale price and other details of the agreement were not disclosed.

East Oregonian Publishing Co. publishes six newspapers in Oregon: The Daily Astorian, the Capital Press in Salem, the East Oregonian in Pendleton, the Hermiston Herald, Wallowa County Chieftain in Enterprise and the Blue Mountain Eagle in John Day. The company also publishes the Chinook Observer in Long Beach, Wash.

Country Media Inc. is based in Tillamook and was founded in 2000 by Steve and Carol Hungerford. In addition to its Oregon publications and the Coast River Business Journal, Country Media owns eight newspapers in Montana and North and South Dakota.