Rutland Herald Sold

The Rutland Herald and the Times-Argus newspapers are being sold, ending years of local ownership. Here is their announcement:

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The Mitchell family announced late Wednesday night they have entered into an agreement to sell the The Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, as well as affiliated print and online publications, to a company headed by Maine-based publishing entrepreneur Reade Brower and printing and marketing executive Chip Harris.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The Herald and Times Argus have about 80 full- and part-time employees.

The Mitchell family has owned the Rutland Herald since 1947 and the Times Argus since 1964. That ownership was in partnership with the Noble family until 1986, when the Mitchells bought out the Nobles.

“We have always held these newspapers in trust for the public. While we’ve always been a privately held company, we believe they are an asset of the communities they serve and of the state of Vermont,” said R. John Mitchell, chairman and president of the Herald Association.

“These principles have, in recent years, been challenged by the rapidly changing business environment for newspapers everywhere, and in particular for independent, family-owned newspapers,” he said. “In Reade, we believe we have found a steward for the newspapers who has both the entrepreneurial spirit and record that is crucial, and the community focus and commitment to journalism that has been at the core of our mission for decades. The simple truth is that, as a family, we felt that if we were unable to continue that mission, we needed to find someone who could.”

The Herald and Times Argus also publish two free weekly newspapers, the Rutland Reader and the Central Vermont Reader, as well as the websites rutlandherald.com, timesargus.com, vermonttoday.com, businessvermont.com, rutlandreader.com and vermontclassifieds.com, as well as the consumer-focused Go Rutland app.

The Mitchells said they could not release any further information as the papers went to press Wednesday night, but said more details would be released when available.

Brower is the principal owner of MaineToday Media, Maine’s largest newsgathering organization, with nearly 400 employees. MaineToday publishes the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, the Morning Sentinel in Waterville and the Coastal Journal in Bath, as well as the pressherald.com, centralmaine.com and mainetoday.com websites. He is also the owner of Alliance Press, a commercial printing company in Brunswick.

Brower, who lives in Camden, Maine, also publishes four weeklies in Mid-Coast Maine: The Free Press in Rockland, which he and his wife Martha founded in 1985 as well as The Courier-Gazette in Rockland, The Camden Herald and The Republican Journal in Belfast.

Brower closed on the purchase of Maine Today Media in June 2015. He purchased the three mid-coast weeklies in March 2012 after the former owner of those newspapers had shut them down.

Harris is a co-founder and formerly was the majority stockholder and president of Upper Valley Press Inc. in North Haverhill, New Hampshire. The 40-year-old company prints newspapers, advertising inserts, and operates a saturation mail company that weekly reaches 250,000 homes in Eastern Vermont and Central New Hampshire.

Prior to starting Upper Valley, he was vice president of client services at Prentiss Court Advertising in Greenville, South Carolina; a reporter and bureau chief with the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia; and a reporter with the Worcester Telegram and Gazette in Massachusetts. He lives in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire.