Panoramic Publishing/Laker Newspaper Sold on Lake Winnipesaukee

By: Press Release | W.B. Grimes & Co.

The sale of The Panoramic Publishing Group, publisher of the weekly Laker newspaper and 10 other ancillary publications, to Daniel L. Smiley, general manager of Turner Publishing in Turner,  ME has been completed.  

Brad Lipe had been only the second owner in the 30-year history of the publishing company located in the heart of Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire’s most famous lake and summer home to former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.  

Lipe has launched a variety of publications to complement the Laker which is published weekly 24 times a year from Mother’s Day to Columbus Day, including year-round dining guides in New Hampshire and Maine, Boating on the Lakes of New Hampshire and Laker at Home Magazine to name a few.  

John Szefc of W.B Grimes & Company represented Lipe in the sale.   Smiley has also acquired the newspaper’s office building at 83 Center St. in Wolfeboro Falls.  

Lipe said that Smiley, who has over 30 years of experience in newspaper, printing, publishing, advertising and direct-mail, is the perfect candidate to succeed him and the newspaper’s founders, Kathy and Dick Eaton, from whom Lipe acquired the Laker in 2001. Smiley has spent the last 16 years working with Turner Publishing where the team has created Maine’s largest direct-mail newspaper company reaching over half a million Maine residents with their seventeen community publications.