Extra! Hersam Acorn branches east

Hersam Acorn Community Publishing L.L.C., already owners of seven regional newspapers (and one in Lewisboro, N.Y.), is purchasing seven newspapers in Fairfield County, also taking ownership of a Trumbull press that prints its papers.
Journal Communications Inc., which publishes the daily Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is receiving a total $30 million from divestments in four states, including the sale to Hersam Acorn of newspapers published by Shelton-based Hometown Publications. The companies did not specify how much Hersam Acorn paid or how it financed the purchase.
Hometown Publications”™ Fairfield County newspapers include the:
Ӣ Bridgeport News
Ӣ Easton Courier
Ӣ Fairfield Today
Ӣ Monroe Courier
Ӣ Shelton Extra
Ӣ Stratford Star
Ӣ Trumbull Times.
The deal also includes several Hometown Publications newspapers covering towns in New Haven County, including the Amity Observer, the Hamden Journal, the Huntington Herald, the Milford Courier and the Valley Gazette.
Hometown Publications reported an average distribution last year of 131,000, up from 130,000 in 2005.
The deal more than doubles Hersam Acorn”™s current base of 90 employees, said Thomas Nash, publisher and co-owner of the company.
At last report, Hersam Acorn”™s seven existing newspapers in western Fairfield County had a combined circulation of 48,000, nearly one-third of them subscribers to the Greenwich Post.
Other Hersam Acorn newspapers include the Darien Times, the New Canaan Advertiser, the Redding Pilot, the Ridgefield Press, the Weston Forum and the Wilton Bulletin.
The company also owns the Lewisboro Ledger in Westchester County, N.Y., west of Ridgefield.