Star Tribune Media Company acquires City Pages

Voice Media Group has sold City Pages, its award-winning weekly newspaper in Minneapolis, to Star Tribune Media Company.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, N.M., represented Voice Media Group in the sale.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

"We have built an incredibly talented team in the Twin Cities, and we're happy they'll be joining such a well-respected local company," said VMG chief executive officer Scott Tobias.

Voice Media Group has owned City Pages since January 2013, when it purchased the publication from Village Voice Media.  Originally founded as a music paper in 1979, the weekly has built a reputation for strong investigative reporting along with cutting-edge cultural coverage.

The Star Tribune Media Company, based in Minneapolis, publishes the Star Tribune, the largest newspaper in Minnesota and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes in 2013.

"We have tremendous respect for the loyal, passionate audience and market position that the talented City Pages staff has built through hard work over many years," Mike Klingensmith, chief executive of Star Tribune Media and publisher of the Star Tribune, said in a statement.  "We think the publication and its digital properties can capitalize on being part of a larger, local media company to create an even stronger City Pages."

City Pages will continue to operate independently of the Star Tribune, under the leadership of publisher Mary Erickson and editor Pete Kotz. 

VMG announced in January that it had retained DV&M to explore new strategies for its publishing assets, including the possible sale or acquisition of alternative publications or other digital businesses.  VMG operates the largest group of metropolitan newsweeklies in the U.S., publishing papers in 10 of the country's most vibrant cities, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Village Voice in New York City.