Grand Junction Daily Sentinel to be sold

The owners of Grand Junction’s paper of record, the Daily Sentinel, are putting the publication up for sale in an effort to divest themselves of their traditional newspaper holdings.

A man reads a newspaper as he waits for a Barack Obama to take the stage at the University of Denver in February. (Photo/Jason Kosena)

Cox Enterprises announced Wednesday it will sell the Daily Sentinel, the Austin American-Statesman and all of its community newspapers in North Carolina and Texas as well as Valpak, one of the largest direct mail advertising firms.

“This decision was made as part of an ongoing strategic review of our portfolio and enables us to maintain our strong and stable financial performance by further paying down debt,” said Jim Kennedy, the chairman and chief executive officer of Cox Enterprises in the Cincinnati Business Courier today. “We will continue to own and operate industry-leading companies, invest in existing businesses and maintain a level of financial discipline that ensures we are well positioned for ongoing success.”

Cox said it will still operate some of its printed newspaper holdings including the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the The Palm Beach Post and the The Dayton Daily News.

The newspaper business as a whole has taken one financial beating after another in recent years as advertisers make a secular shift away from the printed product in favor of newer, digital outlets.

The news of the looming sale of The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel comes on the same day that another large newspaper company, Gannett, which owns The Fort Collins Coloradoan and Channel 9 in Denver, announced it was eliminating as many as 1,000 jobs, many of which will come from its community newspaper division.