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The Los Altos Town Crier has been acquired by the Northern California publisher Weeklys Media Group, according to company CEO Dan Pulcrano who made the announcement last week in the Town Crier.
This will be the Weeklys’ first publication in the Los Altos and Los Altos Hills market, the Town Crier said in the Oct. 8 article. The newspaper currently reaches about 15,000 households, including neighborhoods in Mountain View.
Dennis Young, CEO and publisher of the Town Crier, told the Voice that the sale of the publication was “an opportunity for everybody for growth.”
Founded in 1947, the Town Crier got its start as a “four-page shopper” produced by publisher Dave MacKenzie and illustrator and cartoonist Warren Goodrich. MacKenzie ran the Town Crier until 1972, when it was sold to Suburban Newspaper Publishers, according to the article.
Over the next several decades, different publishing groups acquired the Town Crier. That included the Tribune Co. of Chicago, which in 1993 closed down the newspaper as well as the Peninsula Times Tribune. Within 24 hours, however, the Town Crier was purchased by Paul and Liz Nyberg who ran the newspaper for the next 26 years, according to the article.
In 2019, Young and three employees purchased the Town Crier from the Nybergs.
“Dennis Young has demonstrated heroic efforts to keep community news vital for the past seven years, which included the pandemic and its recovery,” Pulcrano said in the article. “News organizations and other local businesses were of course affected, but [Young] built a team to maintain the Town Crier’s deep connection to the community.”
According to the Town Crier, Young and his wife plan to serve as consultants for the newspaper.
“We are grateful to the subscribers and advertisers who supported us and the dedicated staff members we were privileged to work with,” Young said in the article. “Local journalism is necessary for a community to stay informed and perform well.”
Weeklys Media Group owns more than a dozen publications in Northern California. Several circulate in the Silicon Valley region, including the Metro Silicon Valley, Los Gatan, Morgan Hill Times, Tri-City Voice and Press Banner. The Weeklys got its start in 1985 with the launch of Metro, a free regional publication. The media group is still operated by its founder and remains independent, according to the Town Crier.
