CNHI to Buy 2 TV Stations

By: Lucia Moses Birmingham, Ala.-based Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI), which has been quietly digesting the roughly 100 small dailies it amassed during the late 1990s, is back on the buying front, and this time it's eyeing TV.

CNHI agreed to purchase two Fox stations in Georgia, WFXG-TV in Augusta and WXTX-TV in Columbus, from Seattle-based Fisher Communications Inc., in an asset sale. A CNHI subsidiary will pay $40 million plus working capital, Fisher announced Wednesday. The deal is subject to FCC approval.

"This is our first foray into television, but it will not be the last," The Augusta Chronicle quoted CNHI CEO Mike Reed as saying.

Reed's predecessor and the architect of CNHI, Ralph Martin, saw a future in cross-media ownership, and had begun buying options for stakes in radio stations where the company owned newspapers. But Martin left the company in November 1999, in part over a rift with the company's backer, Retirement Systems of Alabama, over his convergence ambitions.

RSA CEO David Bronner said CNHI isn't "beating down doors" in pursuit of TV stations, but is open to buying opportunities as they arise. "I don't see [CNHI] being actively involved in the management of [the stations]," he said. Newspaper-TV cross-ownership probably isn't in the cards for CNHI because its newspaper markets are too small to host a TV station, Bronner said.

Bronner added the company continues to stay away from radio, which is dominated by a few big owners.