Westplex Media Group to Acquire Moberly (MO) Monitor-IndexBack to News

Moberly, MO – July 28, 2021 – Westplex Media Group announced today that it has agreed to acquire the Moberly (MO) Monitor-Index from Gannett Co., Inc. It is the fourth community newspaper in Westplex’s portfolio. 

Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Gannett in the transaction. Terms of the transaction, expected to close on September 1, were not disclosed.

Westplex is owned by Tim Schmidt, who has nearly 20 years of experience in the newspaper industry. Schmidt founded Westplex in 2018 when he purchased the Montgomery Standard, a weekly newspaper in Montgomery City, Missouri. Schmidt added a second weekly newspaper in October 2019 when he acquired the Warren County Record in Warrenton, Missouri. In August 2020, Westplex acquired its third newspaper in Missouri, the Mexico Ledger, from Gannett.

"We are excited and honored about the opportunity to expand our family-owned company to Moberly and Randolph County,” said Tim Schmidt. “The Monitor-Index has a proud history and we feel this is a natural fit to grow our company. We will work hard to publish a newspaper that the community can be proud of. We feel the newspaper industry has a bright future and we’re glad to work with Gannett a second time to make this deal happen."