Breaking News: Holden Landmark Buys Worcester Magazine
The Holden Landmark Corp., publisher of the Landmark, the Millbury-Sutton Chronicle, the Leominster Champion and four other publications has bought alternative weekly Worcester Magazine from Worcester Publishing Ltd.
According to Gareth Charter, Holden Landmark Corp. publisher, Landmark initiated acquisition talks. Charter and Worcester Publishing, which is owned and published by Allen W. Fletcher, "have been actively working on this for much of this year," Charter said. "We initiated this, and we pushed it in the final stages," he said.
Worcester Magazine will continue to be published from its office at 101 Water St., but the future of the magazine's staff may not be so certain. Charter said he would begin meeting with the magazine's staff today and any staffing additions or cuts "are to be determined." Worcester Magazine employees said they only learned of the acquisition this afternoon.
Fletcher said he couldn't guarantee that the magazine's employees would all have jobs with Landmark, but said he was "confident that most of them...will be rehired." He said he sold the magazine because he had arrived "at a time in my life when I was looking to make a change. It's a personal path I've been on for a few years."
Worcester Publishing Ltd. is also the former parent of the Worcester Business Journal. Fletcher sold the WBJ and two other business publications to New England Business Media in April 2007.
The buy nearly doubles Landmark's newspaper circulation. The company's six weekly newspapers have a circulation of about 30,000. Its Bay State Parent magazine has a circulation of about 40,000 each month. Worcester Magazine distributes 34,000 free copies each week.
The deal is expected to close Aug. 29.
The purchase gives Landmark a foothold in Worcester and an opportunity for significant revenue growth, Charter said. "The opportunities for advertisers are going to be really terrific," he said.
Fletcher said Worcester Magazine's sales are up 30 percent compared to last year. "This is a bigger sales distribution network for them. I'm passing it on to people who should do well with it."
Holden Landmark is a privately-held, wholly-owned subsidiary of Cracked Rock Media Inc. In addition to the Landmark, the Chronicle, the Champion and Bay State Parent, it publishes the Community Journal in Ashburnham, the Fitchburg Pride and the quarterly From House to Home.
Terms of the Worcester Magazine deal were not disclosed.
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