Well it finally happened, the News Chief has been sold. There had been rumors for some time and I had also heard word from an insider that it was on the block.

Morris Publishing Group agreed Tuesday to sell 17 of its newspapers, including the News Chief in Winter Haven, to GateHouse Media Inc. for $115 million.

Morris will use the cash to pay down debt. The sale of its smaller newspapers will leave the Augusta-based company with 10 medium-sized papers.

The other papers sold:

In addition to the News Chief, the Morris daily newspapers to be sold are the Dodge City (Kan.) Daily Globe, The Newton (Kan.) Kansan, The (Pittsburg, Kan.) Morning Sun, the Hillsdale (Mich.) Daily News, The Holland (Mich.) Sentinel, the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post, The (Independence, Mo.) Examiner, The Grand Island (Neb.) Independent, the York (Neb.) News-Times, The Daily Ardmoreite (Okla.), The Shawnee (Okla.) News-Star, the Yankton (S.D.) Daily Press & Dakotan and The Oak Ridger (Tenn.).

The nondaily newspapers include La Estrella (Dodge City, Kan.) The Girard (Kan.) City Press and the Vermillion (S.D.) Plain Talk. Also sold was a commercial printing operation, Flashes Publishing (Mich.), which also publishes The Holland Sentinel and the Flashes Shopping Guides.

So it looks like they're dropping their smaller market papers. Properties like Jacksonville and Augusta, their stronger brands, remain. Here is the official release from Morris.

The new owners, GateHouse Media, own a number of smaller publications across the country. Papers like The Daily Telegram and the Boonville Daily News. Looking around at some of the paper web sites, they're not that impressive which isn't a good thing since the future of all news is online. There are some bright spots like the Taunton Gazette. It features a somewhat decent layout, RSS feeds...but a completely blank blogs page.