• by Sara Guaglione , May 14, 2018

New Media Investment Group has acquired the northeast Ohio newspaper Akron Beacon Journal from Black Press Group for $16 million.

Bill Albrecht, group publisher of the Ohio group under New Media’s publishing arm, GateHouse Media, is now publisher of the Akron Beacon Journal. He will be based in Akron and continue to oversee the GateHouse Media Ohio group.

Kelly Tremaine will become vice president of advertising for the Beacon Journal and the Ohio group, which lives on Ohio.com.

Of the Beacon Journal’s 245 employees, 216 received job offers from GateHouse, according to an article on the publication’s site.

The Akron Beacon Journal has a daily circulation of more than 68,000,

GateHouse Media operates 57 titles in Ohio, including both dailies and weeklies, such as The Columbus Dispatch, The Repository in Canton and The Daily Record in Wooster.

New Media and Canada-based Black Press Group also completed another deal: New Media sold GateHouse Media Alaska Holdings to Black Press, which includes Juneau Empire, Peninsula Clarion and Homer News.

Just this year, New Media has closed on $112.5 million in acquisitions. It bought the Austin American-Statesman from Cox Enterprises for $47.5 million last month.

New Media, through GateHouse, owns 144 daily newspapers nationwide. The company operates in 565 markets in 38 states.