Stumpf Publishing Acquires Rochester (MN) ShopperBack to News

ROCHESTER, MN, February 3, 2003 – Stumpf Publishing announced today that it has acquired the 47,000-circulation Rochester Shopper in Rochester, Minnesota from Darwin Oordt of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a newspaper merger-and-acquisition firm in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Darwin Oordt in the transaction.

Daniel Stumpf, co-owner of Stumpf Publishing, said that the Rochester Shopper will fit in perfectly with their existing publications in the area, and will allow customers to place regional advertising packages. Stumpf also stated that he anticipates making significant changes to the Rochester Shopper, but did not disclose any of the specifics at this time.

The Stumpf family owns neighboring weekly publications in Plainview, Elgin, Eyota, St. Charles, Lewiston, and Wabasha in southeastern Minnesota, as well as several in western Wisconsin. Stumpf also owns two Buyers Express Shopping Guides, one of which is distributed in Rochester and surrounding areas, and the other in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. The Rochester Shopper will act as a sister publication to the Buyers Express, with a merged office in Rochester serving both publications.

Oordt said he was selling the Rochester operation in order to concentrate on a new publishing venture that he and his partners are pursuing. Rochester was the last of several publishing operations that Oordt had owned in Minnesota over the past 25 years.