Georgia Trust acquires The Macon Telegraph, plans Melody merger
The Melody will publish its final standalone edition July 31 before returning later this summer as a section of The Telegraph.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — The Georgia Trust for Local News has acquired The Macon Telegraph from McClatchy Media and plans to combine it with The Macon Melody under The Telegraph name.
The deal closed Wednesday with funding from the Peyton Anderson Foundation, according to a news release from the Georgia Trust. The release called it a “landmark transaction that puts the paper under local control and nonprofit ownership. It did not disclose the purchase price or say whether the merger will affect staffing.
The Macon Melody’s final standalone edition will be published July 31. It will return later this summer as a section of The Telegraph highlighting local people, places and events. Current Macon Melody subscribers will become Telegraph subscribers.
The Telegraph newsroom will be housed inside Mercer University’s Reg Murphy Center for Collaborative Journalism. The Georgia Trust says the location will create opportunities for Mercer students to work with the newsroom.
The organization is also temporarily removing The Telegraph’s digital paywall. It did not say how long the paywall will remain down.
“We are committed to building a modern media organization focused on enhanced community engagement that will provide quality local news and information for years to come,” Georgia Trust Executive Director Cynthia DuBose said.
The Georgia Trust is a subsidiary of the nonprofit National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit that acquires, stabilizes and revitalizes news organizations across the country, according to the release. With the acquisition, the Georgia Trust says it now operates 21 newspapers and digital platforms across Middle, West and South Georgia.
The organization also acquired the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer from McClatchy as part of the deal announced Wednesday.
The Telegraph has operated in Middle Georgia for 200 years. The Peyton Anderson Foundation is named for the newspaper’s former owner and publisher, who sold the publication to Knight Newspapers in 1969.
Courtesy: The Georgia Trust
