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Newspaper publishers Brown Media Holdings Co. and Brown Publishing Co. have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy relief and plan to sell their assets to a bidder chosen by the companies.
The Cincinnati-based, family-owned companies — which own several newspapers in the Miami Valley including The Urbana Daily Citizen, Mechanicsburg’s The Telegram, the Beavercreek News-Current, Centerville-Bellbrook Times, Kettering-Oakwood Times, Springboro Sun, Englewood Independent, Huber Heights Courier and the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Skywrighter — filed Friday, April 30, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York. They say the unnamed bidder will assume most liabilities.
The sale involves all the companies’ assets in Ohio, New York, Texas, South Carolina, Illinois, Iowa, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming.
The company closed two Clark County newspapers — the Enon Messenger and the New Carlisle Sun — more than a year ago.
Chief Executive Roy Brown says the decision to file for bankruptcy was made to help ensure the businesses are “best positioned to prosper in the years ahead.”
Mike Savage, who manages 15 newspapers as publisher over Brown Publishing’s Times Community Newspapers and Greene County dailies divisions, said he could not answer questions about the bankruptcy filing.
“We have no plans to disrupt our operations,” he said Saturday, directing questions to a corporate official in Cincinnati, who could not be reached for comment.
Savage said he will meet Monday with approximately 75 editorial, advertising and graphics employees in his newspaper group, who work in offices in Kettering, Xenia, Englewood, Vandalia and Wright-Patterson.
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