Brown Publishing Company was a privately owned Cincinnati, Ohio newspaper business started by Congressman Clarence J. Brown in 1920 which ended a 90-year run in August/September, 2010 with its bankruptcy and sale of its assets to a new company formed by its creditors and called Ohio Community Media Inc. .] The company was previously a family owned business that published 18 daily newspapers, 27 weekly newspapers, and 26 free weeklies. The former CEO was Brown's grandson, Roy Brown. The chairman of the board was Roy's brother, actor Clancy Brown.
Brown Publishing was noted for its support of the Republican Party in Ohio.
On April 30, 2010 the company and its subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy in Central Islip, New York, in the Eastern District of New York in Docket 10-73295. It listed Brown and 14 affiliates had assets of $94.1 million and $104.6 million in debts as of March 31, 2010. Its affiliates included Delaware Gazette Co., Texas Business News LLC, Utah Business Publishers LLC, Texas Community Newspapers Inc., Upstate Business News LLC, Troy Daily News Inc., SC Biz News LLC, ARG LLC, Brown Business Ledger LLC, Dan's Papers Inc., Business Publications LLC.
Several key executives of Brown Publishing submitted a plan to purchase key assets of the company under the auspices of a newly created company, Brown Media Holdings, but this plan fell through when a key lender backing the plan withdrew its offer .
On September 3, 2010, it was announced that Manhattan Media purchased Dan's Papers, Montauk Pioneer, and Hampton Style Magazine from Brown .
Later in September, Brown's 14 Ohio dailies and about 50 weekly publications were transferred to Ohio Community Media, a new entity owned by Brown's creditors, in a transaction valued at $21.75 million.
Over the next few months, the new company sold a "mini-empire" of business newsweeklies that Brown had assembled starting in 2007, unloading titles in such far-flung cities as Charleston, South Carolina; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Fort Worth, Texas; and Naperville, Illinois.
Philadelphia-based Versa Capital Management completed its purchase of Ohio Community Media for an undisclosed price in May 2011. By this point, the chain consisted of 14 daily newspapers and about 30 weeklies, all in Ohio.
Famous quotes containing the words brown, publishing and/or company:
“I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood.”
—John Brown (1800–1859)
“While you continue to grow fatter and richer publishing your nauseating confectionery, I shall become a mole, digging here, rooting there, stirring up the whole rotten mess where life is hard, raw and ugly.”
—Norman Reilly Raine (1895–1971)
“There is no such thing as “the Queen’s English.” The property has gone into the hands of a joint stock company and we own the bulk of the shares!”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)