'Fargo Forum' Parent Looking At KR's Aberdeen (S.D.) Orphan

Posted Thursday, May 11, 2006 12:00 am

By: E&P Staff Expressing interest in buying one of the newspapers orphaned in The McClatchy Co. acquisition of Knight Ridder, Forum Communications President and CEO William Marcil toured offices of the Aberdeen (S.D.) American News, the paper reported Thursday.

The story by American News writer Emily Arthur reported Marcil and two other men spent not quite an hour touring the offices in the company of its publisher, Jerome Ferson.

Marcil and Ferson declined to comment on the visit. "The way the process is structured, details have to stay confidential," Ferson told his paper. This was the first known visit to the property by a potential bidder, the newspaper reported.

Marcil, whose family-owned company publishes the Fargo Forum and several other Plains states papers, has said he was interested in the American News and two other Knight Ridder papers being sold by McClatchy: the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald and the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune.

UPDATE: Forum's Marcil also toured the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune this morning, the News Tribune reports on its Web site.

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'Fargo Forum' Parent Looking At KR's Aberdeen (S.D.) Orphan

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