Cowles Co. purchases two monthly newspapers in Tri-Cities

Cowles Co., which publishes The Spokesman-Review, has announced it has acquired Tri Comp Inc., which publishes the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business and the Senior Times newspapers.

Cowles Co., which operates the Journal of Business in Spokane through a subsidiary, announced the deal to purchase the publications through a new subsidiary. The deal was scheduled to close Friday, according to a news release.

As part of the deal, the Tri-Cities publications, which both publish once a month, will be “led primarily by current staff” and will be overseen by Paul Read, publisher of the Journal of Business in Spokane.

Read will manage the Tri-Cities publications under a new subsidiary called Mid-Columbia Media Inc.

Melanie Hoefer, who founded the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business, is exiting the publishing field after a 27-year career to focus on her consulting practice, according to the release.

“They have built a great local product and our intent is that it remains integral to and focused on the market it so capably serves,” Read said in the release.

Cowles Co. will continue to independently operate the Tri-Cities newspapers, separate from its other holdings, and will retain all of the newspapers’ employees, according to the release.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.