Re-printed from the Ontario Community Newspapers Association newsletter, e~clips, Vol. 109, August 27, 2004
The Espanola (ON) Mid-North Monitor (www.midnorthmonitor.com) has been purchased by Osprey Media Group.
In a deal announced last Thursday, Osprey purchased the weekly paid newspaper, circulation 3,347, from publisher Judy Skidmore who has owned the 26-year-old newspaper since 1997.
The interim publisher of the Monitor, effective September 1, will be Ray Ethelston, who is also publisher of the Elliot Lake Standard.
Skidmore will continue to own and operate the Working Forest, a seven-time per year tabloid for the logging industry.
The Working Forest began as a supplement to the Mid-North Monitor and has continued to grow since 1997. It now has a national circulation of 11,000.
Osprey Media now has 30 community newspapers in the OCNA membership with a circulation of close to 397,000. It also publishes 21 daily newspapers and a number of specialty publications in the province.
In related news, Osprey also announced yesterday the purchase of the national wine-culture magazine Vines, along with an annual tour guide “Wine Escapes Niagara” and the “Buyer’s Guide to Canadian Wine,” from Vines Publishing Inc. publisher Walter Sendzik and other shareholders. Sendzik will remain as Vines publisher.
Osprey entered the magazine market about 18 months ago, with the purchase of Kingston Publications, whose flagship publication is Kingston Life. “Since then, we’ve started up a number of publications addressing niches within particular regions,” said Michael Sifton, Osprey’s President and CEO.
“But this is a step in a different direction in that we’re dealing not with a community within a geographic area, but rather a community of interest — the wine community,” he said.
Read the story from the Monitor “Monitor Publisher moving to sister paper” (http://www.midnorthmonitor.com/stories/25story4.doc)