News-Gazette Media to be acquired by Community Media Group

Illinois-based News-Gazette Media announced to employees that an agreement has been signed to sell substantially all of its assets to the family-owned Champaign Multimedia Group LLC, an affiliate company of Community Media Group. The acquisition is expected to close in early November this year. CMG, headquartered in downstate West Frankfort, owns and operates community newspapers with websites in several Midwestern states, including Illinois, Indiana and Iowa, as well as newspapers in Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York.

The acquisition of News-Gazette Media will include three radio stations: WDWS, WHMS and WKIO, serving the Champaign-Urbana, Danville and East Central Illinois areas. The acquisition will also include weekly newspapers, free-distribution shoppers and websites serving Mahomet, Rantoul, Ford County, Piatt County and Vermilion County. News-Gazette Media was originally founded by David W. Stevick in 1919.