Seacoast Newspapers to buy 2 Maine weeklies

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – The owner of the Portsmouth Herald has reached an agreement to buy two weekly newspapers in southern Maine.

Seacoast Newspapers Inc. of Portsmouth will buy the York County Coast Star in Kennebunk and The York Weekly in York within a few days if undisclosed terms and conditions are met, the Herald reported on its Web site Tuesday.

Both weeklies are published on Wednesdays. The Coast Star has a circulation of 10,964. The York Weekly has a circulation of 5,274.

They are owned by Maine Consolidated Media Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of American Consolidated Media LP of Dallas.

Seacoast Newspapers is a subsidiary of Ottaway Newspapers Inc. of Campbell Hall, N.Y. In addition to the Herald, Seacoast Newspapers publishes The Exeter News-Letter, Hampton Union and two other weeklies.

American Consolidated will continue to own and operate seven newspapers in Maine: The Courier-Gazette, which is published three times a week and covers Knox County and surrounding towns and islands; and six weeklies, The Camden Herald in Camden, The Republican Journal in Belfast, Ellsworth Weekly in Ellsworth, The Bar Harbor Times of Mount Desert Island, Capital Weekly in Augusta and Lincoln County Weekly in Damariscotta.