Negotiations cease for Annex newspapers

Osprey Media Holdings Inc. and Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. have ceased negotiations on the sale of AnnexÔÇÖs newspaper group in Southwestern Ontario. Negotiations concluded July 24, following an impasse. The deadline to reach a deal was July 25.

ÔÇ£Despite a few months of very positive negotiations a few issues held us up from reaching a final agreement,ÔÇØ said Annex president and CEO Mike Fredericks. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre disappointed with the outcome as we believed Osprey would have been very good publishers of our titles and been capable of helping our papers move to their next stage of development.ÔÇØ

Fredericks said negotiations werenÔÇÖt impacted by a pending union certification vote at the Simcoe (ON) Reformer and the Delhi (ON) News-Record. The deal would have seen the sale of the Simcoe (ON) Reformer, Tuesday (ON) Times-Reformer, Delhi (ON) News-Record, Tillsonburg (ON) News, Woodstock (ON) Sentinel-Review, Norwich (ON) Gazette, Ingersoll (ON) Times, as well as the Lakeshore Shopper and Oxford Shopping News.

ÔÇ£Annex has no pressing need to sell the papers, so itÔÇÖs back to business as usual,ÔÇØ Fredericks said. He would not elaborate on reasons for the impasse.

(This story was originally published in the July 30th issue of the Tillsonburg (ON) News)