Dix Communications sells The State Journal

It's been an honor and a privilege to work with a good and talented staff.”

Ann Dix Maenza, The State Journal

Frankfort Newsmedia, LLC, (FNL) today completed its purchase of The State Journal in Frankfort, Ky., from Dix Communications. 

FNL is majority owned by Boone Newspapers, Inc., (BNI) with offices in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Natchez, Miss. Other owners are Natchez-based Carpenter Newsmedia, LLC, (CNL) and key BNI personnel. Jim Boone, of Tuscaloosa, is BNI's chairman. Todd Carpenter, of Natchez, is BNI's president and chief executive officer and principal owner of CNL.

John Cribb, managing director, Cribb, Greene & Cope newspaper brokerage firm, said an agreement in principle for the sale was announced last month, and final details were worked out in recent weeks. Cribb, Greene & Cope is a 92-year-old newspaper brokerage, appraisal and consulting firm with offices in Montana, Virginia and Missouri.

The State Journal's sale ends 53 years of ownership by Dix Communications. Veteran Advertising Director Lloyd Lynch has been named general manager of FNL and will lead its business operations. Longtime Editor Phil Case will continue to lead news operations.

As one era ends and another begins, Ann Dix Maenza, publisher of The State Journal since assuming the position in 1998 from her father, the late Albert E. Dix, says for her it's the people she's worked with that have made this journey special.

"It's been an honor and a privilege to work with a good and talented staff," said Maenza who was eight when Al and Edna Dix came to Frankfort in 1962. Her brother, Troy, was 5 and sister Amy was born after the family came here.

• Read the article in today's paper about the sale