Albany News listed for sale

By Donnie A. Lucas

After almost 45 years of ownership, Melinda and I are ready to let someone else take over the reins of this 140-year old newspaper – The Albany News.

Before we advertise to the newspaper industry or other possible interested parties statewide, we want to determine if there is interest by someone locally or with local ties who wants to explore this opportunity.

We know this could take awhile, but the time has come for our family to retire and start the process of getting the newspaper in the hands of someone else.

We will, of course, still be here through any transition to provide assistance, including working with a new owner to make the conversion as easy as possible.

We thank our loyal readers for their support and want to place the paper in the best hands possible to continue serving Albany and Shackelford County.

There have been changes in recent years in the newspaper business, but we feel most of those industry changes have not affected weekly newspapers nearly as much as daily publications, especially not ours.

Inquiries can be sent to melinda@thealbanynews.net. We are waiting for a month before we advertise this opportunity to others in the newspaper business.

We have seen what selling to a chain has done to some other small weeklies and hope to avoid this option by finding the right person or persons who are Albany fans to take over this job.