Sale of Warsaw (IN) Times-Union CompletedBack to News
Warsaw, IN – April 5, 2016 – Chandler M. Williams and Erin L. Williams have completed their purchase of the Warsaw (IN) Times-Union. Lane Williams Hartle, chairwoman of Reub Williams & Sons Inc., announced in March that the company had entered into an agreement to sell the Warsaw Times-Union to current shareholder Chandler M. Williams and new co-owner Erin L. Williams.
The Warsaw Times-Union is a 9,000-circulation daily that has served Warsaw and neighboring communities in Kosciusko County for more than 160 years. This unique community is home to more than 20 orthopedic companies, and has been named by the New York Times as the undisputed orthopedic capital of the world.
The company announced in January of this year that it had engaged Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to explore a possible sale of the company. Hartle said the owners were impressed with the number of parties that expressed an interest in the Times-Union, and with the quality of the proposals they received.
After thorough review, the company decided the proposal submitted by Chandler Williams and Erin Williams was the strongest. The shareholders are pleased to see ownership of the Times-Union remaining in the hands of the Williams family.
“As a lifelong Warsaw resident, I am pleased to support Warsaw through continued quality journalism in our community’s only local daily newspaper,” Erin Williams said.
Chandler Williams added, “I am proud to carry on the legacy of Williams family ownership of the Times-Union and look forward to continuing and improving the rich heritage of our local newspaper.”
The Williams family has owned the newspaper since 1854, when General Reub Williams founded The Northern Indianian which later evolved into the Warsaw Daily Times. In the 1940s the Williams family purchased the other daily newspaper in town, the Warsaw Union. The two newspapers were then merged into the Times-Union.
The mission of the Times-Union as stated by Reub Williams (1910-1987) remains today:
- To publish and disseminate the news of the day accurately without bias neither with favor nor with fear of recrimination.
- To comment editorially on the issues and events of the day that the editors believe to be of vital importance to the reader.
- To maintain a public forum whereby others may voice their opinions – thus preserving the public’s right of expression.
- To maintain continuous surveillance of the peoples’ government that noother institution is designed to do –simultaneously serving as a conduit by which public office holders may maintain communications with the public they serve.
- To both foster and encourage commerce and to support all community programs that are designed for progress and betterment of the welfare of community life.
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