By: George Garneau IN ITS SECOND acquisition in a month, Journal Register Co. announced that it had agreed to acquire the Torrington, Conn., Register Citizen from Eagle Publishing Group, based in Pittsfield, Mass.
Terms were not disclosed.
Eagle chairman Michael G. Miller told employees that the company was selling the 17,000-circulation six-day morning paper for "financial reasons."
Journal Register president and chief executive officer Robert M. Jelenic said the paper was profitable. He anticipated that some employees would lose their jobs but said no "significant" pay cuts were planned.
The company plans to upgrade computer systems and add press equipment to the paper, he added.
Located in northwest Connecticut, the Register Citizen's circulation has been flat for years. It covers 16 towns in Litchfield County.
Like Journal Register's acquisition of the Norristown, Pa., Times Herald last month, the asset sale, expected to close in November, does not include contracts with two unions at the Register Citizen.
The deal will give Trenton, N.J.-based Journal Register, formerly run by Ralph Ingersoll II and now owned by the New York investment firm Warburg Pincus, 15 dailies, including the New Haven Register, Connecticut's second-largest paper.
? Robert Jelenic, Journal Register Co. president and chief executive officer, defended cutbacks, saying the newspaper was "totally overstaffed" for its size.
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