The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996                TAG: 9608020437
SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 
                                            LENGTH:   56 lines

DIGEST

Media General completes publishing firm takeover

Media General announced Thursday that it has completed its $38 million acquisition of the Register Publishing Co. Inc., publisher of the Danville Register & Bee, and has named Peter S. Yates as publisher. Yates previously was publisher of the Culpeper Star-Exponent. The Register & Bee will join Virginia Newspapers Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, which operates daily newspapers in Charlottesville, Culpeper and Lynchburg, as well as a group of weeklies and specialty publications. The Danville Register & Bee is a morning newspaper with a circulation of 23,000 copies daily and 27,000 on Sunday. Publisher of the Star-Exponent since 1991, Yates is a native of Richmond and is a graduate of the University of Virginia. (Staff) Jury awards damages in State Farm case

A jury has awarded $145 million in punitive damages and $2.6 million in compensatory damages to a couple who accused State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. of fraud. The couple, Curtis and Inez Preece Campbell of Lewiston, Utah, sued in 1989, alleging State Farm failed to protect Campbell's interests after he was sued following a fatal 1981 car accident. The dead man's family and a survivor of the crash had offered to settle with Campbell for the $50,000 limit of his insurance policy. But State Farm took the case to trial where Campbell was assessed $253,000 in damages. (AP) Pentagon releases list of defense contractors

The Pentagon released a list of the nation's largest defense contractors, based on contracts for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 1995. Some of the companies have since merged. They are: Lockheed Martin Corp., $10.5 billion; McDonnell Douglas Corp., $8 billion; Tenneco Inc., $3.7 billion; General Motors Corp., $3 billion; Northrop Grumman, $2.9 billion; Raytheon Corp., $2.9 billion; General Electric Co., $2.1 billion; Loral Corp., $2 billion; Boeing Co., $1.8 billion; United Technologies Corp., and $1.8 billion; Rockwell International Corp., $1.2 billion. Lockheed Martin acquired Loral earlier this year. Boeing announced Thursday it is buying most of Rockwell's defense operations. (AP) Met Life, New England merger delayed

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.'s merger with The New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. will be delayed after some policyholders and a consumer group won a court order temporarily preventing Massachusetts regulators from approving the combination. The court's action raises the risk that the merger will be derailed, if the plaintiffs have their way. The restraining order issued by a Massachusetts Superior Court judge prevents the Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner from signing off on the transaction, the last regulatory hurdle the insurers must clear. New York-based Metropolitan Life and Boston-based New England Mutual agreed to the transaction in August 1995, a move that will bring $270 billion in assets under one roof and make Metropolitan Life one of the nation's largest money managers. The New England is the nation's oldest mutually chartered insurer. Mutual insurance companies are owned by their policyholders. (Bloomberg Business News) by CNB