Freedom deals away its remaining properties

Freedom Communications,whichearlier this month announced the pending sale of The Free Press and its other properties in North Carolina and Florida, plans to sell its flagship newspaper and remaining properties to a Massachusetts company, it was announced Monday.

What remains of the Irvine, Calif.-based company, owners of The Free Press since 1973, will now become part of 2100 Trust, LLC, in a merger with a subsidiary of 2100 Trust, according to a news release from Freedom.

The stock-only deal includes the Freedom flagship newspaper, the Orange CountyRegister, and the companys second-largest newspaper, the Colorado Springs, (Colo.) Gazette. Five other newspapers in California and Arizona are also included: The Barstow Desert Dispatch; Marysville Appeal-Democrat; Porterville Record, Victorville Daily Press; and The Sun in Yuma, Ariz.

The sale of its 21 North Carolina and Florida papers to Halifax Media Holdings, based in Daytona Beach, Fla.,is expected to close within the month. Prior to that announcement, Freedom had sold in separate deals its television stations and its newspapers in New Mexico, Texas and, as a package, in Ohio, Illinois and Missouri.

Terms of the agreement with 2100 Trust were not released. The transaction is expected to close within 30 days, company officials said.

All current Freedom employees at the operating locations will transition to the new ownership, said Mitchell Stern, Freedoms chief executive officer.

While providing the value that our shareholders have sought, this transaction also ensures Freedoms communities that our newspapers serve will continue to receive the outstanding service that has been our hallmark, Stern said. Our employees will be able to continue the community journalism at which they so excel.

The agreement marks the end of Freedom Communications. R.C. Hoiles founded Freedom after acquiring what was then the Santa Ana Register in 1935. The company eventually grew to be one of the largest media companies in the country with 100 daily and weekly newspapers, numerous news websites and specialty publications and eight broadcast stations.

Its holdings in North Carolina grew to include, in addition to The Free Press, the Gazette in Gastonia, the Star in Shelby, the Times-News in Burlington, the Sun Journal in New Bern, the Daily News in Jacksonville and several weekies, including the Jones Post.

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Freedom deals away its remaining properties