Pamplin Media Group, which operated two dozen newspapers mostly in the Portland Metro area was sold to Mississippi-based Carpenter Media Group by owner Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr on June 1, the company said.
“After 25 years operating Oregon’s largest newspaper group, we made the decision to sell the company,” said Pamplin in a story published to every Pamplin newspaper website. “Due to age and health reasons, it made sense to pass the company on to someone else who will carry on the tradition of balanced journalism, the old-fashioned way.”
The move leaves just three locally-owned independent print news outfits in Washington County that this publication is aware of.
Operating in rural western Washington County is the Banks Post and sister publication the Gales Creek Journal (that’s us!); in the urban unincorporated Washington County community of Cedar Mill is Cedar Mill News; and on the east side of the county are Tigard Life and Tualatin Life.
The sale comes as Pamplin’s various companies have come under scrutiny over missed pension fund filings, legal action over missed environmental obligations to clean up mining activities on Portland’s Ross Island and more woes as reported by Willamette Week.
Carpenter Media Group owns 180 papers across North America, according to Willamette Week.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Gales Creek Journal and sister news publications the Banks Post and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
