Freedom Communications Inc., the parent company of three New Mexico newspapers, has agreed to sell its television division to Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. in a $385 million deal that will leave the company and its newspapers free of debt, the Clovis News Journal reported.
The company owns about 100 daily and weekly newspapers nationwide, including the Orange County (Calif.) Register, The Gazette in Colorado Springs and the Odessa (Texas) American, as well as three papers in New Mexico ? the Clovis News Journal, the Portales News-Tribune and the Quay County Sun.
The sale of Freedom?s eight television stations ? none of which is in New Mexico ? is expected to close in four to six months, subject to Freedom?s shareholder, Federal Communications Commission and antitrust approval, the company announced today.
Freedom CEO Mitchell Stern said the television sale will eliminate the company?s debt so management can concentrate on its newspapers, magazines and specialty publications, the News Journal said.
Freedom emerged from bankruptcy in April 2010 with $325 million in debt, some of which has been paid down in the past 18 months, the paper reported.
The company purchased its first television station, KTVL/10, a CBS affiliate in Medford, Ore., in 1981, and expanded its broadcast division to include five CBS network affiliates, two ABC affiliates and one CW Television Network affiliate, the News Journal said.
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