• by Sara Guaglione , April 21, 2016

Just one month after Digital First Media successfully won a bid to acquire Freedom Communications, the media company announced that it will sell New England Newspapers Inc. and The Salt Lake Tribune.

New England Newspapers Inc. includes three dailies and one weekly: The Berkshire Eagle, The Brattleboro Reformer, the Bennington Banner and the weekly Manchester Journal.

The papers were sold to a local group of investors called Birdland Acquisition LLC. According to an article from Berkshire Eagle announcing the sale, the new owners are led by retired District Court Judge Fredric D. Rutberg, who will be president of NENI.

The purchase takes effect May 2.

According to The Berkshire Eagle, the new ownership group plans to return an estimated 20 to 25 outsourced jobs in the advertising and production areas and replace them with local hires. An expansion of the local news staff is also expected during the first year, as well as “a substantial number of new hires” in Web and technical services, finance and accounting.

Yesterday, Digital First Media announced they were selling The Salt Lake Tribune and its affiliates to Paul Huntsman, son of businessman Jon M. Huntsman, Sr. and brother of former Utah governor and presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Salt Lake Tribune has been an independent news source in Utah since 1871. In 2015, the Tribune had an average paid distribution of 74,000 printed newspapers daily, making it the highest distributed daily newspaper in Utah, according to a statement.

“We are honored to be stewards of The Salt Lake Tribune,” stated Paul Huntsman. “It is important that The Salt Lake Tribune continues in its indispensable role for our community and to be locally owned.”

At the end of March, Publishers Daily reported that Digital First Media won a bid to acquire the assets of Freedom Communications in a bankruptcy auction. Tribune Publishing's $56 million bid was the winning offer, at nearly $10 million more than Digital First’s runner-up bid to acquire Freedom’s assets, which includes the Orange County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Tribune lost the bid only because the Department of Justice stepped in to object to the acquisition.