ROCKLAND – Courier Publications and its roster of six weekly newspapers are being sold to VillageSoup, the upstart publisher of an award-winning Web site and weeklies in Knox and Waldo counties.

VillageSoup announced the deal Tuesday and indicated that it expected to complete the transaction by the end of the month. The purchase will result in the loss of about 26 positions because of duplications. Currently 129 people are employed by the two firms’ eight publications.

Richard M. Anderson, chief executive officer and co-founder of Village Net Media and VillageSoup, said the company’s expansion would energize and transform the local weekly newspaper market in coastal Maine. Along with folding his company’s two weeklies into existing Courier papers, Anderson also plans to expand his VillageSoup Web site into the Hancock and Kennebec county markets.

“The media landscape is changing in Maine and across the country, and I’m proud to say that we are creating an innovative approach that works,” Anderson said. “VillageSoup integrates a highly interactive Web site with traditional print and is the future for small town media. This purchase allows us to expand outreach and breathe new life and energy into these papers, all for the benefit of readers and advertisers.”

Courier Publications, owned by South Carolina-based Crescent Publications, publishes The Courier Gazette of Rockland, The Republican Journal of Belfast, The Waldo Independent of Belfast, The Camden Herald, The Bar Harbor Times and The Capital Weekly of Augusta. Along with its Web site, Village Soup publishes the Waldo County Citizen and the Knox County Times.

When the sale is completed, the Waldo County Citizen and Waldo Independent will be folded into the Republican Journal and the Knox County Times will be blended with the Courier Gazette and Camden Herald. The other Courier papers will continue to publish as they do today and be supported by VillageSoup Web sites. All of the papers will remain broadsheets and keep their current mastheads but will have VillageSoup branding integrated.

Most of the jobs being lost will be in Knox and Waldo counties where the various papers are combining and duplication of services is most prevalent. Employees of both companies were notified of the transaction Tuesday. Anderson said his team would be meeting with Courier employees to discuss available job opportunities.

“While we are confident that this transaction will result in superior product, temporary job losses in the community are unfortunately unavoidable,” Anderson said. “We certainly had hoped we could offer positions to everyone, but with the duplication of services and necessary contractions, it is just not feasible.”

Crescent Publishing purchased Courier Publications, which at that time had seven papers, from American Consolidated Media of Texas in 2001. American Media purchased the locally owned Courier Publications in 1999. Under its ownership, Crescent Publishing expanded the company with the 2004 purchase of the Waldo Independent but shut down the Lincoln County Weekly and Ellsworth Weekly. The company will be back under local ownership.

Unlike VillageSoup, many of the Courier papers began publication in the 1800s. Anderson and his son Derek founded VillageSoup as a news and information Web site for the Rockland and Camden area in 1997. The site expanded to Waldo County in 1999, and taking direct aim at the Courier papers, the company launched its print publications in 2003 and 2004.

Anderson of Camden said VillageSoup creates a “virtual town square” by bringing strong local journalism together with a forum for broad community involvement and interaction with local businesses and organizations. Melding that with some of the state’s oldest and most established community newspapers will put coastal Maine at the forefront of the industry, he said.

“With the declining revenues of traditional newspapers, both in circulation and advertising, the 10-year VillageSoup experiment is finally being recognized in the industry,” Anderson said. “Our approach helps transition traditional community newspaper companies into community host companies and that’s the future of the industry.”

wgriffin@bangordailynews.net

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