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An Arkansas investment group is acquiring a controlling interest in Donrey Media Group, one of the nation's biggest newspaper companies.
The deal was announced last week by the heads of Donrey and Stephens Group Inc., parent of Stephens Inc., which bills itself as the largest investment and brokerage firm off Wall Street and has held other media interests.
Las Vegas, Nev.-based Donrey owns 53 daily newspapers and 71 non-dailies as well as broadcast and cable-television operations and outdoor-advertising companies. It ranks as the 17th-largest newspaper company, based on combined daily circulation over 790,000. Forbes magazine has estimated Donrey to be worth $950 million.
Dick Smith of the Maryland-based newspaper-brokerage company W.B. Grimes valued a controlling interest in Donrey at $500 million. He said the company's Fort Smith, Ark.-based Southwest Times Record alone has been appraised at $60 million to $70 million.
Smith, who has followed the newspaper industry for 50 years, said he was shocked to learn of the acquisition--and he was not alone. "People who have been with the company 30 or 40 years who have had the close confidence of...