D/FW Radio: Non-Com KERA In Talks To Acquire Denton Newsspaper

Not-for-profit public media organization KERA is in talks to acquire Denton County’s primary local newspaper, hoping the combined resources will help both outlets thrive, reports the Dallas Morning News.

KERA, North Texas’ source for PBS and NPR programming, said Tuesday that the companies are in a discovery phase and hope to close a deal in 2023. The transaction will be facilitated by the National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit that works to keep local news in local hands.

The Denton Record-Chronicle was previously bought by The Dallas Morning News parent company, A.H. Belo Corporation (now DallasNews Corporation), in 1999. Eight years later, A. H. Belo sold the Denton paper, which has 24 staff members, including 13 in the newsroom, to its current publisher, Bill Patterson.

In May, the paper switched from printing a paper seven days a week to using a daily digital edition six days a week and printing one weekend edition.

Patterson, 62, said transitioning a print paper to a digital-first model “is not an inexpensive proposition.” He approached the National Trust for Local News in May 2021 after hearing its CEO and co-founder Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro speak on a webinar.

“I liked what she had to say about preserving community journalism,” he said. “And, at the time, I was thinking about succession planning and what might happen to the company in the future and wanting to preserve journalism.”

CFOs are increasingly aware they need more reliable, accessible data to be able to decisively lead their organizations into the future.

The trust, founded in 2021, brought KERA and Patterson together earlier this year, and talks have accelerated since the summer, Patterson said.

KERA has a “long history” of media partnerships, which it will continue to explore, said CEO Nico Leone.