Country Media adds to its publications

Country Media Inc., which bought the Del Norte Triplicate and Curry Coastal Pilot last July, has reached an agreement to acquire the daily newspaper in Coos Bay, as well as the weekly newspapers in Bandon and Reedsport.

Country Media president Steve Hungerford said the transaction will close Jan. 31.

The Worlda in Coos Bay, the Western World in Bandon and the Umpqua Post in Reedsport are being sold to Country Media by Southwest Oregon Publishing Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lee Enterprises Inc., which has owned the Coos Bay newspaper since 2005.

Lee is a publicly-traded media company headquartered in Davenport, Iowa that also owns Oregon dailies in Corvallis and Albany.

Country Media is a 20-year-old Oregon family-owned company with its central office in Salem.

It bought the twice-weekly newspapers in Crescent City and Brookings seven months ago from Western Communications Inc. in Bend.

Country Media also owns non-daily community newspapers serving Lincoln City, Tillamook, Manzanita, Cannon Beach, Clatskanie and St. Helens, Oregon; Langdon and Bowman, North Dakota; and Baker, Montana.

“We certainly had not set out to buy additional newspaper companies so soon after settling in to Brookings and Crescent City,” said Hungerford. “But when approached with the opportunity to purchase The World and its two sister publications, it was a logical fit with our other news media on the Oregon coast.

“We’ll now have more people and resources available to make our individual publications here even stronger.”