Sweet Home Oregon Weekly Sold
For Release Wednesday, April 6, 2005

The New Era of Sweet Home, Oregon, has been sold to Scott and Miriam Swanson of La Mirada, CA, it was announced today. The 2,100-circulation paid weekly has been owned and operated by Alex and Debra Paul for the past 20 years.

The new owners will take over operation of the award-winning newspaper; EXTRA, the total market coverage shopper's guide; and www.sweethomenews.com, the community's news and advertising web site, effective April 1.

"If we had written an advertisement seeking a family to which we could entrust Sweet Home's community newspaper, we could not have found better guardians," said Alex Paul. "First and foremost, the sale means The New Era will remain an independent voice for the community, extremely rare considering the growth of media groups in the last 25 years."

JP Media Partners of Gold River, CA, a merger-and-acquisition firm for the newspaper industry, represented the Pauls in the transaction.

Mr. Swanson brings an extensive newspaper background to his new role as publisher. He earned a bachelors and master's degrees in journalism from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1984 and the University of Oregon in 1990 respectively.

His newspaper career spans 25 years, beginning as a sportswriter for the Grants Pass Daily Courier. Most recently, he managed the editorial operations for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, a group of 14 weekly newspapers east of Los Angeles with a total circulation of 175,000.

“I've considered myself a displaced Oregonian for years, and now I'm very happy to be back," he said. "Being able to take over a newspaper like this one, in a community like Sweet Home, makes it all the more exciting."

The Pauls leave the newspaper as the second longest continuous owners in its 76-year history, second only to the Bill Dudley and A.E. Macoubrie period of 1946-1970. The New Era celebrated its 75th anniversary last September.