Ventura County Star Parent Company to Be Acquired by USA Today Parent Company Gannett

Today, the Ventura County Star, its parent company Journal Media Group and Gannett Co. announced that Gannett is acquiring Journal Media Group (JMG) for $280 million.

JMG is a publicly traded company formed early this year by combining the newspaper operations of The E.W. Scripps Company and Journal Communications, Inc., serving print and digital media in 14 U.S. markets in nine states, including our local Ventura County Star. JMG stock jumped 44% today as a result, to just under $12 per share...about the same price the stock opened at in March 2015.

If the acquisition receives regulatory approvals, VC Star employees will working for the same parent company as USA Today employees in the first quarter of 2016.

Gannett has a current market valuation of about $1.8 billion, just slightly higher than former VC Star owner E.W. Scripps at about $1.7 billion.