By 1808Delaware
The media scene in Delaware County continues to evolve. The Delaware Gazette, a newspaper whose history reaches back more than two centuries, will soon have a new owner.
HD Media LLC has agreed to acquire the Ohio and Indiana publishing operations of AIM Media Management, a transaction involving 25 publications across the two states. The Gazette is one of 19 Ohio newspapers included in the sale. HD Media will assume ownership September 1. Financial terms were not disclosed.
For Delaware, the transaction represents the latest ownership change for a newspaper that has chronicled the community through nearly its entire history. The Gazette traces its beginnings to 1818, when Ohio itself was only 15 years old. Originally published as the Delaware Gazette and Religious Informer, it eventually became a fixture of daily life in the city and county. The Thomson family owned and operated the newspaper for 161 years before selling it in 2004. It later passed through Brown Publishing Company, Ohio Community Media and Civitas Media before AIM Media acquired the Gazette and other Ohio publications in 2017.
A 25-Publication Transaction
The acquisition substantially expands HD Media’s presence in Ohio while establishing a new foothold in Indiana. Other Ohio newspapers included in the deal are The Lima News, Sidney Daily News, Miami Valley Today, The Bryan Times, Sentinel-Tribune, Urbana Daily Citizen, Wilmington News Journal, Northwest Signal, Daily Advocate, Early Bird, Xenia Daily Gazette, Record Herald, Times-Gazette, Register-Herald, Morrow County Sentinel, Galion Inquirer, Fairborn Daily Herald and Beavercreek News-Current.
The six Indiana publications are The Republic, Daily Journal, Daily Reporter, The Tribune, Brown County Democrat and The Times-Post.
Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented AIM Media in the transaction. AIM Media Chairman and CEO Jeremy L. Halbreich said the company has focused on producing strong local journalism while operating successful community businesses during its years in Ohio and Indiana.
“Our publications have consistently received the largest number of awards and recognitions among publishing groups of our size, and for this we wish to thank all of our dedicated employees for their hard work and support,” Halbreich said.
A Bet on Community Newspapers
HD Media is based in Charleston, West Virginia, and currently operates 10 newspapers in West Virginia and Ohio. Its publications include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Gazette-Mail, The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington and the Portsmouth Daily Times. The company purchased the Portsmouth newspaper from AIM Media in 2023, establishing a relationship that helped lead to the larger transaction.
HD Media Managing Partner Doug Reynolds said the acquisition reflects confidence in the continuing value of community journalism.
“We aren’t buying newspapers because we’re nostalgic for the way the world used to be,” Reynolds said. “We’re buying them because we believe community newspapers have a future.”
Reynolds said HD Media can offer the resources of a larger publishing organization while allowing individual newspapers to retain their local identities.
“Our philosophy is simple: think globally and act locally,” he said. “We can provide the resources of a larger organization, but these newspapers must continue to belong to the communities they serve.”
That promise will carry particular weight in Delaware, where the Gazette has survived changing technologies, economic pressures and repeated shifts in ownership. The announcement did not identify any planned changes to the Gazette’s staff, publication schedule, subscriptions or local coverage. For now, the most immediate change will be the name of the company behind one of Delaware’s oldest surviving institutions.
