Freedom Communications, Inc. has sold The Delta Democrat Times in Greenville, Ms. to Emmerich Newspapers, Inc. of Jackson, Ms.
The sale price was not disclosed.
The Delta Democrat Times has a daily circulation of 12,129 daily and 13,357 on Sunday.
The Greenville paper performed well over the years with Freedom, but it became apparent that it would benefit from synergy from other regional papers, said Jonathan Segal, president of Freedom Community Newspapers.
Therefore, I am pleased that Wyatt Emmerich, who has other papers in the area, was able to purchase The Delta Democrat-Times. Like Freedom, the Emmerich organization is a private, multi-generational newspaper family. I am confident the Emmerichs will be good employers and also good corporate citizens.
We are delighted and grateful that Freedom Communications has decided to sell the Delta Democrat Times to Emmerich Newspapers. We hope to be good stewards of a newspaper with a rich tradition of service to its readers. The Delta Democrat Times is a fine, profitable newspaper and we have no plans for changing it other than doing our best to make it as good a newspaper as it can be, Wyatt Emmerich said.
My grandfather, Oliver Emmerich, and Hodding Carter Jr. were close friends. My father, John Emmerich, and Hodding Carter III were close friends. The Carters and the Emmerichs both took bold unpopular stands during the civil rights era. In that sense, it is particularly pleasing that, in a way, the newspaper has come back home to Mississippi.
Freedom acquired The Delta Democrat Times in 1980 from the heirs of Hodding Carter. It was Carter who won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1946 when he called on Americans for racial tolerance in the aftermath of the Japanese surrender ending World War II.
