FORMER REDSKINS BOSS TO BUY THOMSON DAILY

By: Staff reports Deal Marries Worlds of Sports, Newspapers



John Kent Cooke, former president of the Washington Redskins, has
agreed to buy Thomson Corp.'s Key West Citizen, weekday
circulation 10,500, and six sister non-dailies, for an undisclosed
amount.



Including this deal, Thomson has negotiated sales of 45 dailies,
leaving four U.S. and five Canadian to be sold. Thomson is selling all
its papers except Canada's Globe & Mail to focus on electronic
publishing.



Cooke, 58, was president of the Redskins beginning after the 1997 death
of his father, Jack Kent Cooke until the team was sold. Ontario-born
Jack Kent Cooke also owned the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles
Kings, but made his fortune in newspapers, radio and TV, starting with
his first job working for Thomson founder Roy Thomson as a manager of
an Ontario radio station. John Kent Cooke studied English and
journalism and trained in his father's communications businesses.