The Chicago Reader, reported earlier this year to be on the auction block, was officially purchased Wednesday by Wrapports LLC, the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times.
The sale was confirmed via a memo from Alison Draper and Tammy Bailey of Creative Loafing Inc., Poynter reports.
"Wrapport’s expertise with strategic investments in emerging technologies and new media, along with their vision for and commitment to modernizing the business of journalism, makes them a strong owner of the Chicago Reader," the memo read. "Wrapports’s ownership and executive team recognizes the value of the Reader brand and its essential role in the city of Chicago."
Timothy Knight, Wrapports CEO, is not going public with the terms of the sale, but told the Sun-Times that the Reader "has a loyal readership base and therefore has a loyal advertising base. It continues to produce excellent journalism and it has the best set of listings -- events, restaurants, venues and other similar listings -- of anyone in the city."
Crain's Chicago Business, which broke the story on the sale earlier this month, previously reported that the Reader's purchase price would be roughly $3 million.
Writes the Reader's Michael Miner of the sale: "The acquisition gives advertisers access to a type of affluent, urban reader they could reach through no other Sun-Times Media paper. ... The Reader will benefit, presumably, from the new owners’ deep pockets, entrepreneurial savvy, and unbridled ambition."
In 2009, a bankruptcy judge in Tampa awarded control over the Reader and its parent company, Creative Loafing Inc., to New York-based Atalaya Capital Management. Atalaya offered $5 million for the company.
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