Hiatt Family Acquires Cherokee County (KS) News-Advocate and SEK VoiceBack to News

Baxter Springs, KS – March 15, 2021 – Larry and Sharon Hiatt, publishers of the Columbus News-Report, have announced their acquisition of the Cherokee County News-Advocate and SEK Voice from Gannett Co., Inc.

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 were not disclosed.

The Cherokee County News-Advocate is published in Baxter Springs. Both the News Report and the News-Advocate serve Cherokee County and will be combined into the News-Report. The last issue of the News-Advocate will be published Wednesday, March 17.

"We have built a respected newspaper in Columbus and are currently serving many readers in Baxter Springs and the rest of Cherokee County," said Hiatt. "With our three-times per week publication the intention is to add a news and sports department in Baxter Springs and make the News-Report a more informative and entertaining publication for the entire county."

The News-Report is the official newspaper of Cherokee County, Columbus, Baxter Springs, Roseland, West Mineral and Scammon.

"When the Baxter Springs Citizen went out of business in 1998 we founded the Baxter Springs News and operated it for five years before retiring," continued Hiatt.

In 2010 the Columbus Advocate and the Baxter Springs News were combined into the Cherokee County News-Advocate and the Hiatts began publishing the Columbus News-Report.