Futrell selling Washington Daily News to Alabama-based company | Eastern North Carolina Now

    On July 31, Beaufort County’s only locally owned print newspaper, the Washington Daily News, will soon be under the ownership of an Alabama-based newspaper conglomerate, Boone Newspapers Inc.

    As reported by the Washington Daily News, “An agreement has been reached in principle for the sale of the Washington Daily News by the Futrell family to Washington Newsmedia LLC, a newly formed media company controlled by Boone Newspapers Inc. of Birmingham, Ala.”

    Within the past few years, small-town publications across the country have been forced to sell out to larger corporations in order to stay in business. After enduring years of negative economic pressure on print media, from the affects of the recession on advertisers to the migration of readers to online news sites, the Washington Daily News has followed suit.

    The new company, Washington Newsmedia LLC, will publish the Daily News, The Scuppernong Reminder, a weekly publication serving Tyrrell County, and other affiliated publications. Boone Newspapers owns and manages other small publications in North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Minnesota, Ohio and Michigan.

    The Futrell family, owners of the Washington Daily News since 1949, will retain a minority interest in the paper and sole ownership of The Ocracoker, a weekly tabloid for the small town of Ocracoke. Brownie Futrell will relinquish his position as publisher to Ray McKeithan, who has been associate publisher at the company since 2004. McKeithan will also retain a minority interest in the company.

    Though McKeithan had accepted the eminence of a change in ownership, while Futrell and Boone Newspapers Inc. were in discussions for the last six months, he is still finding it hard to accept this as the new reality, he said.

    To date, Boone Newspapers Inc. is not planning to send in a management team, according to McKeithan. Instead, he and the Boone Newspapers Inc. president will share management.

    “I’ll be working with the president, Todd Carpenter, on implementing any strategies moving forward,” said McKeithan.

    Though understandably still in the process of acceptance, McKeithan was optimistic about the resources a larger company will bring to the table. When asked if the sale would lessen the company’s ability to provide local news coverage, McKeithan was sure that it would not.

    “No, if anything it will enhance our ability,” he said. “A larger company has more resources available to us. If anything, our plan is to expand local coverage, including on our Web site.”

   McKeithan was unsure if Bonne Newspapers Inc. would resume printing the paper locally, or if they would resume printing seven days a week.

    “Right now, I don’t know of any changes and plans for our publishing cycle,” said McKeithan. “It doesn’t mean they might not happen down the road.”

    Beaufort County Now wishes the Washington Daily News the best in adapting to its new ownership as well as to the public’s growing expectation for instantaneous news coverage. While we, in light of this expectation, have chosen to broadcast online, we still appreciate the luxury of hiding behind an actual newspaper in a crowded café and the nostalgic smell and stain of newsprint.