By: E&P Staff St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Times Publishing Co. agreed Tuesday to sell Congressional Quarterly to the Roll Call Group, a subsidiary of The Economist Group.
"We are delighted to welcome Congressional Quarterly to Roll Call," said Laurie Battaglia, managing director and executive vice president of Roll Call Group. Battaglia will become the top executive leader of the new merged company, to be known as CQ-Roll Call Group.
The CQ-Roll Call Group said in a statement it "intends to maintain each company's unique editorial voice." No products are targeted for elimination currently, the company said, and "the great majority of the CQ staff will join the merged organization."
The company will have "the largest and most experienced newsroom covering Washington and will be the leader in providing insight and analysis about the workings of Congress," Battaglia added.
However, Robert W. Merry, CQ's president and editor in chief for the past 12 years, will not be retained by the merged company. "As in many such instances of two companies coming together," Merry said, "one CEO inevitably becomes extraneous. In this situation, that's me." He said will pursue other publishing and journalistic opportunities.
Times Publishing Chairman and CEO Paul Tash said the parent company of the St. Petersburg Times is retaining its Governing Magazine division in D.C.
CQ was founded in 1945 as the publication of record for coverage of congressional activity. Roll Call was founded in 1955 and acquired by the Economist Group, publisher of The Economist magazine, in 1992.
Congressional Quarterly was represented by The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., a New York City-based investment bank that specializes in the media, information, marketing services and related technology industries.
No other terms of the transaction were disclosed. It is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
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