Dow Jones to sell off six community newspapers to Community Newspaper Holdings

Dow Jones & Co. has said in a statement that they are now selling off six community newspapers to Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.

The deal is worth around $282.5 million and it would help the company pay down debt, fund an acquisition and become less dependent on print publishing.

Dow Jones added that its Local Media Group comprising 14% of revenue, compared with 19% in 2006.

Dow Jones Chief Executive Rich Zannino in a statement: “This sale and the pending acquisition of Factiva are the latest examples of our commitment to transform Dow Jones from a company heavily dependent on print publishing revenue to a more diversified company capable of meeting the needs of its customers across all consumer and enterprise media channels, whether print, online, mobile or otherwise. We are efficiently redeploying capital from print to faster growing digital publishing.”