
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 15, 1995                   TAG: 9509150088
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

NEW OWNER FOR LYNCHBURG PAPER

Media General, Richmond-based communications company, said Thursday it will buy four dailies and several weekly newspapers, including The News & Advance in Lynchburg.

Seller Worrell Enterprises Inc. will receive about $230 million.

Media General, which owns the Richmond Times-Dispatch and cable television operations in Fairfax and Fredericksburg and Virginia Business magazine, said it will purchase newspapers in Charlottesville, Culpeper, Lynchburg and Suffolk, which have a combined circulation of 81,000 daily and 85,000 on Sundays.

Its flagship property, the Times-Dispatch has a daily circulation of about 211,000 with Sunday distribution of 256,000.

In addition to the daily newspapers, the purchase includes weeklies and shoppers Worrell owns in Charlottesville, Culpeper, Suffolk and Richlands as well as Greene, Madison and Orange counties.

``We believe readers in those communities will benefit from the substantial statewide and national news resources available from our Richmond Times-Dispatch and our Washington news bureau,'' said J. Stewart Bryan III, Media General's chairman, president and chief executive officer.

Worrell, based in Boca Raton, Fla., employs about 350 people full-time and 100 part-time at its Virginia publications. Telephone calls to Worrell's headquarters Thursday evening were not answered.

``I think they are a good company and I look forward to working with them,'' Dennis E. Thomas, publisher of The Daily Progress in Charlottesville, said after the sale was announced at his newspaper. ``The things that company has to offer this community are good, and I'm excited about it.''

``I look forward to the future and the prospects it holds for The News & Advance,'' said Terry L. Hall, publisher of the Lynchburg paper.

The Suffolk News-Herald and the Culpeper Star-Exponent offered no immediate comment.

In addition to The Times-Dispatch, Media General also publishes the Tampa Tribune in Florida and the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina and has a 40 percent interest in The Denver Post.

Media General also has major interests in broadcast and cable television, commercial printing and publication, electronic financial publishing products and recycled newsprint production, mainly in the Southeast.

The acquisitions would also benefit Gateway Virginia, an online service Media General plans to launch on the Prodigy computer network, said Bob Pendergast, a Media General vice president and director of corporate communications.

by CNB