Longtime publisher buying Denton Record-Chronicle from A. H. Belo

Harry · November 1, 2017

The Denton Record-Chronicle is going to be locally owned again.

Bill Patterson, the longtime publisher of the Record-Chronicle, is purchasing the paper from A. H. Belo Corp., which has owned the publication since 1999. The sale will be completed by the end of the year, he announced Tuesday afternoon.

"I think there's a great opportunity in Denton," Patterson said. "I feel strongly that Denton needs a daily newspaper and robust and trusted digital portfolio, and I believe we can be productive and grow."

The decision to buy came after Patterson and leaders at A. H. Belo realized the solutions to problems at The Dallas Morning News, the flagship publication of A.H. Belo, wouldn't necessarily work at a smaller paper like the Record-Chronicle, Patterson said.

Grant Moise, executive vice president of A. H. Belo, reiterated that the paths forward for the two papers weren't the same. So the split makes sense, he said.

The two companies will continue to work together after the split, Moise said. The newspaper will still be printed and distributed through Belo, and The News and the Record-Chronicle will continue to share content.

"The real difference will be in the ownership structure, and Bill and the DRC team will have real, true autonomy and independence over the strategic decisions they make in the future," Moise said. "We're excited we're going to remain business partners with the DRC, and I hope we'll be able to play a meaningful part of their future, just in a different way."

read more: http://www.dentonrc.com/news/news/2017/10/31/longtime-publisher-buying-denton-record-chronicle-ah-belo

NorthTexan95 · November 1, 2017

Interesting. This could be really good for more focus on UNT in the local area. It also could turn out to be horrible if the DMN starts having less UNT coverage. It'll be interesting to see what "shared content" actually becomes.

I'd imagine Vito would simply stay one with the new company and may have more opportunity to do more in covering UNT and other local sports topics. Vito definitely needs to be on the podcast this week to share about this.