HD Media high bidder on Charleston Gazette-Mail as auction begins; Ogden Media says it won't counterbid - Entrepreneur Generations

The owners of Ogden Newspapers have decided not to continue bidding on the purchase of the Charleston Gazette-Mail, which leaves HD Media the highest bidder in the auction to buy West Virginia's largest newspaper. The auction began at noon today.

Ogden bid $10.91 million on the paper, which declared bankruptcy on Jan. 30. HD Media countered with an $11.4 million bid on Monday, Lacie Pierson reports for the Gazette-Mail. An attorney for Charleston Newspapers, Brian Audette, told Pierson that Ogden officials do not intend to place another bid.

"If HD Media is the successful bidder after the auction, the only legal step it will have before owning the Gazette-Mail will be a hearing Friday, when U.S. District Judge Frank Volk will make his final ruling on the sale of West Virginia's largest newspaper," Pierson reports. "After Volk hands down his order on the sale Friday, the sale should be closed on or before March 31, according to an order he handed down in February."

HD Media is the Huntington-based parent company of the Herald-Dispatch. It also owns the Wayne County News, the Logan Banner, Williamson Daily News, the Coal Valley News and the Pineville Independent Herald. "Doug Reynolds, a former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates who was the Democrat candidate for West Virginia attorney general in 2016, is the managing partner of HD Media," Pierson reports.

from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2ts8JmH HD Media high bidder on Charleston Gazette-Mail as auction begins; Ogden Media says it won't counterbid - Entrepreneur Generations

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