Hearst Buys Dallas Morning News Parent for $75 Million

Hearst has agreed to acquire DallasNews Corporation, the publicly traded parent of The Dallas Morning News and marketing agency Medium Giant, in an all-cash deal valued at $74.9 million. DallasNews shareholders will receive $14 a share, a roughly 319 percent premium to the stock’s 9 July closing price of $4.39. Boards of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close in September or October, after which DallasNews will become a private unit of Hearst Newspapers. The purchase will give Hearst newspapers in Texas’s four largest cities, extending a portfolio that already includes the Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and Austin American-Statesman. Hearst Newspapers, which owns 28 daily and 50 weekly papers nationwide, said it intends to invest in the Dallas title’s digital strategy and audience growth. Founded in 1885, The Dallas Morning News employs 157 journalists and has won nine Pulitzer Prizes. DallasNews Corporation, one of Texas’s oldest continuously operating firms with 439 employees in total, said the deal will provide the financial resources needed to sustain local journalism amid rapid shifts in media consumption.