By: E&P Staff The Providence Journal and its parent company, A.H. Belo Corp., have agreed to sell Rhode Island Monthly magazine to John J. Palumbo, the magazine's longtime president and publisher.
The newspaper announced the sale on Sunday. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to be finalized in about a week.
The Belo Corporation acquired Rhode Island Monthly in 1997, and named Palumbo publisher and general manager. Palumbo, a former Journal ad executive, became president and publisher in 2001.
Palumbo told The Journal that he began discussing a possible sale with Journal Publisher Howard Sutton last fall. A general agreement was reached in March of this year. Palumbo also told the paper that he will use a U.S. Small Business Administration loan to finance most of the cost of purchasing Rhode Island Monthly Communications Inc., the magazine?s parent company.
Rhode Island Monthly was founded in 1987, and was purchased by the Providence Journal Co. in April of 1997, two months after the paper itself was bought by Belo.
According to The Journal, Rhode Island Monthly?s audited circulation has increased 25 percent to 44,000 issues since the Journal purchased it, and 91 percent of its copies are sold through subscriptions, the paper said. Overall, the paper's revenue has fallen by 19 percent over the last two years.
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