Silver City Independent Publishing Co. Acquires Silver City (NM) Sun-News and Deming (NM) HeadlightBack to News

November 1, 2022 – Silver City, NM – Silver City Independent Publishing Co. LLC, publisher of the Daily Press and Independent in Silver City, New Mexico, has agreed to purchase the Silver City Sun-News and the Deming Headlight 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 were not disclosed.

“Although it’s been a very difficult year for us and most newspaper publishers, I believe in the future of community journalism — and see a real opportunity for us and for the people of Grant and Luna counties with this sale,” said Nickolas Seibel, owner of the Silver City Independent Publishing Co. and editor and publisher of the Daily Press.

“I’m proud of what we accomplish every day at the Daily Press for the people of Grant County, and I expect that the new staff of the Headlight will accomplish the same for Luna County,” Seibel said. “Our guiding principle here has been to produce a newspaper by, about and for this community, and that will remain true in Deming as well. The Headlight will be its own publication, and in no way a satellite of the Daily Press.”

Seibel will merge the Silver City Sun-News into the Daily Press and Independent. Subscribers of the Sun-News will be given a subscription of equivalent length to the Daily Press, and those who already have subscriptions to both will have their Daily Press subscription extended.

“I’m grateful to Gannett for this opportunity to build community journalism,” Seibel said. “And I’m grateful to the small investors in Grant and Luna counties who have backed our vision and made this purchase possible.”

The Silver City Independent Publishing Co. has owned the Daily Press and Independent since 2014, when Seibel purchased the newspaper from the Ely family, who had owned the business since 1934. The Silver City newspapers date back to the founding of the weekly Silver City Independent in 1896.