Owner of The Republic purchases The Jackson County Banner

The company that owns The Republic has purchased The Jackson County Banner.

AIM Media Indiana announced Tuesday that it bought the twice weekly newspaper from Lincoln Trail Publishing Co., a division of Community Media Group of West Frankfort, Ill.

The acquisition includes The Banner’s digital publications and The Budget, a free circulation paper delivered to all non-subscribers in the market area.

“We recognize the longstanding commitment to this community by Community Media Group and the Perrotto family. They have been dedicated stewards of these publications and we are honored to step into their role as owners to continue and to expand the service and support to Brownstown and all of Jackson County,” said Jeremy L. Halbreich, chairman and CEO at AIM.

“The Perrotto family is admired and deeply respected across our industry and we look forward to continuing in their tradition,” Halbreich added.

Mark J. Perrotto, president and chief executive of Community Media Group, said “we are pleased that The Jackson County Banner will be operated by a quality newspaper publishing organization with an established presence and a major commitment to the region.”

In conjunction with this transaction, AIM Media Indiana is not acquiring the existing office location of The Jackson County Banner. AIM will begin immediately identifying a prospective new location for the newspaper within the Brownstown community.

The paper will continue to be published on Tuesday and Thursday.

Chuck Wells, publisher of The Republic and AIM Media vice president, has been named publisher of The Banner.

“Brownstown is the county seat, and it is incredibly important to the residents to have a paper focused on Brownstown and that covers schools, sports, churches, government and community events,” Wells said. “The residents of Brownstown deserve to have a quality local newspaper that continues the legacy started when The Banner was founded and that reflects the community of Brownstown.”

The Brownstown Times, a weekly paper published by AIM Media, will cease publication.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

AIM Media Indiana owns and operates daily newspapers and related web sites in Columbus, Franklin, Greenfield and Seymour; weekly newspapers and related web sites in Edinburgh, Nashville, New Palestine and Pendleton; a variety of other weekly, monthly and shopper publications and related websites; digital marketing agency DigitalAIM; and a commercial printing business serving a broad range of clients.