Sample News Group Acquires Batavia (NY) Daily News & Livingston County (NY) NewsBack to News

Batavia, NY – March 24, 2023 – The Batavia Daily News and its sister publication the Livingston County News have been purchased by Sample News Group. The company purchased four publications in total from Watertown, NY-based Johnson Newspaper Corporation (JNC). The deal also includes the Oswego County News, and the Oswego Shopper.

Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Johnson Newspaper Corporation in the transaction. Terms were not disclosed.

The Sample News Group is parent company of Oswego County Media Group, which also publishes The Palladium-Times, The Valley News, The Oswego County Advertiser, and online at OswegoCountyNewsNow.com.

“We are thrilled to be adding these publications to our Sample News Group family,” George “Scoop” Sample of Sample News Group said. “These news operations have been successfully run by the Johnson family and we look forward to continuing to serve these revitalized regions of Western and Central New York.”

“We are proud to be passing on the stewardship of these community newspapers to Sample News Group, as we continue to publish daily and weekly newspapers,” said Alec Johnson, president of JNC. “Sample, like Johnson Newspaper Corp., is a company with its family name attached. Scoop has proven to us that he has the commitment and ability to ensure the continued success of these community newspapers.

“The Johnson family is proud to have contributed to the growth and success of these papers over the past several years,” Johnson continued. “The commitment to local journalism, by people who live and report within the communities where these papers circulate, will continue.”

Sample News Group currently operates three properties and a printing plant in Oswego under the leadership of Publisher Sharon Lynett. Lynett will be integrating the Oswego County News and Oswego Shopper into her existing operation in early April. Sample News Group will officially take ownership of the newspapers on May 1.

Sample News Group is a privately held publishing company based in Huntingdon, PA, with 17 daily newspapers and more than 35 weeklies and specialty magazines. The company owns and operates 30 local websites and six centralized production facilities, in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

JNC acquired the Daily News in 1981 and founded The Livingston County News in 1989.