Sound Publishing Inc. has purchased the locally based publisher of the Marysville Globe, Arlington Times and three other publications in the state.
Sound, which owns a number of small newspapers in Washington and Oregon, acquired Sun News Inc. of Marysville for an undisclosed price. In addition to the two weeklies, Sun also operates the regional Express Shopper and monthly business journals in Bellingham and Wenatchee.
Sound president Manfred Tempelmayr said from the company’s Kitsap County headquarters that the acquisition strengthens the company’s position in Western Washington.
“We’re just really excited to have these properties,” he said.
Tempelmayr described the two weeklies as “well-respected community newspapers.” Both have been published since the 1890s.
Sun News Inc. owners Bob and Debra Marshall and Kris and Catherine Passey bought the Globe and Times in 1997 and the business monthlies in 2001.
The monthly Wenatchee Business Journal and the Bellingham Business Journal serve their respective cities and Chelan and Whatcom counties with business news. The similar Everett Business Journal, also owned by Sun, closed in 2004.
Kris Passey will continue to serve as both publisher of the Marysville and Arlington newspapers and supervisor of the business publications.
Tempelmayr said he does not foresee a reduction in staff at the newspapers. Instead, “we could possibly grow a bit,” he said.
Sound Publishing may consider a redesign of the newspapers in the future. On Friday, though, Templemayr said it was still too early to say for sure.
Through its subsidiary King County Publications, Sound also owns the Reporter weekly newspaper group in King County.
“We’ve taken on quite a bit in the last year,” Tempelmayr said.
Sound also publishes weekly newspapers in the San Juan Islands, Whidbey Island, Kitsap County, Vashon Island and Tacoma and owns the Little Nickel and Nickel Ads classified papers in Washington and Oregon. Overall, the more than 50 publications boast a weekly circulation of 850,000.
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