Eagle Times resumes
publishing with new owner

The Eagle Times of Claremont, N.H., was back in business Oct. 12 after being shuttered for three months and undergoing bankruptcy proceedings and a sale.

The daily newspaper’s final edition before folding was published July 10 after then-owner Harvey Hill announced that his company, Eagle Publications of Claremont, was bankrupt. The company laid off 65 full-time employees, and 100 workers total, and closed the business.

Sample News Group, a family-owned newspaper chain based in Corry, Pa., that owns newspapers in Maine, bought the Eagle Times after a bankruptcy hearing Sept. 2, and rehired 20 staff members, according to wcax.com, Web site of WCAX-TV in Burlington, Vt.

Harry Hartman, publisher of the newly acquired Eagle Times, told wcax.com: "The Eagle Times has a very special place in the minds and hearts of the people in this area, and we are happy to be a part of bringing it back and giving the people of Claremont their newspaper back."

Eagle Publications filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy July 10, closing The Eagle Times and three weeklies, The Connecticut Valley Spectator of West Lebanon, N.H., The Message for The Week of Chester, Vt., and a shopper, The Weekly Flea of Claremont. Bankruptcy filings showed the company owed about $4.7 million.

The new owner had not decided whether to resume publishing the Spectator again, wcax.com reported.

Four weeklies and a daily Web site sprung up in the Claremont area to take the place of the closed papers. The Message was recently relaunched as The Messenger, under a new owner. The Valley News of Lebanon, N.H., also expanded its coverage into Claremont, N.H.

Hill, owner and publisher of Eagle Publications, reportedly remained about $4 million in debt to several creditors after the sale. Sample News’ purchase offer was about $261,000, according to the Rutland (Vt.) Herald. About $203,000 of the offer was to be spent to honor outstanding subscriptions for the 8,000-circulation newspaper, and another $52,000 would go to G.E. Capital Corp., based in Stamford, Conn., to pay debts for equipment, leaving only $6,000 to be paid to other creditors. Hill would be responsible for the other debts.

Court records valued the Eagle Times, including its printing press, telephone system, a couple of delivery vans, photo rights, and newsprint, at $871,000.

Court documents listed debts for Hill’s former company totaling $4.6 million, including $4.5 million in unsecured claims and money owed to Hill. The former company also owed money to the Internal Revenue Service and taxes to New Hampshire and Vermont.

A government investigation of the company's 401(k) plan, from 2004 to 2009, also was revealed in court records at the time of the bankruptcy proceedings.

Hill bought the Eagle Times about 10 years ago after being in the paper manufacturing business. More than a year was spent unsuccessfully to find an owner to take over Eagle Publications, Hill said, and he said his family couldn’t afford to spend any more money on the newspapers.

Sample News bought The Times Record of Brunswick, Maine, and The Journal Tribune of Biddeford, Maine, in 2007. The company owns 10 dailies, 20 weeklies, two magazines and three commercial printing companies, including three small New York dailies bought in September 2008, according to The Associated Press.

POSTED 10/22/09