Former Owner Repurchases Fort Worth Business PressBack to News

FORT WORTH, TX, November 1, 2010 – Richard L. Connor and his wife, Deborah, have repurchased the Fort Worth Business Press, Tarrant County’s premier business publication. DRC Media LLC, wholly-owned by the Connors, completed the acquisition on Oct. 29 from Ohio Community Media LLC. The purchase includes The Collin County Business Press, numerous websites and other niche magazines. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a newspaper merger and acquisition firm in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Ohio Community Media in the transaction.

Both of the Connors served at various times as publishers of the newspaper. Deborah Connor was its last publisher when they sold the newspaper in 2007 to concentrate on a growing daily newspaper company they founded. Richard Connor was publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from 1986 to 1997.

"We’ve never really left Fort Worth because we love the city and have always intended to maintain ties here," said Connor. "We have continued to own a home in Fort Worth and have never lost touch with our close friends. This has always been a good business for us and we could not be more pleased to bring it back to local ownership."

The Business Press was sold to an Ohio-based publishing company in 2007 as Connor began growing the daily newspaper company in other states. Connor first bought the Business Press in 1998 when he founded Lionheart Newspapers LLC., which owned 70 newspapers nationwide.

He is also currently CEO and a part owner of both MaineToday Media Inc. and The Wilkes-Barre Publishing Company, which own and operate daily and weekly newspapers clusters in Maine and Pennsylvania, respectively.

Ohio Community Media owns and operates a large portfolio of daily and weekly newspapers in western Ohio, in addition to business publications located throughout the country. OCM took ownership of these publishing assets through a court-ordered Section 363 bankruptcy sale of the Brown Publishing Company’s assets earlier this year.

If you have further questions contact Dirks, Van Essen & Murray at 505-820-2700