Gannett has continued to unload US regional mastheads, with ten finding new owners this month.

Most recently, family-owned Paxton Media acquired six newspapers in North Carolina from Gannett, including the Lexington Dispatch, Asheboro Courier-Tribune, Burlington Times-News, Kinston Free Press, New Bern Sun Journal, and the Daily News of Jacksonville.

Paxton, established 125 years ago and headquartered in Paducah, Kentucky, is managed by fourth and fifth-generation family members. It owns more than 100 newspapers across the Midwest and Southeast. Among its ten North Carolina papers are the High Point Enterprise and Goldsboro News-Argus.

In North Dakota, the Devil's Lake Journal and the Country Peddler have new owners in MCM Media and Kathy Svidal.

MCM Media owns the Thief River Falls Times and the Northern Watch in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, where Kathy Svidal serves as publisher. She had been publisher of the Devil's Lake Journal for more than 35 years, and says she will be bringing back Louise Oleson, former editor at the Journal for 17 years.

In New Mexico (pictured), Silver City Independent Publishing is acquiring the Silver City Sun-News and Deming Headlight from Gannett.

Nickolas Seibel who owns Silver City Independent Publishing and is editor and publisher of the Daily Press, says the company will merge the Silver City Sun-News into the Daily Press and Independent.

“I’m grateful to Gannett for this opportunity to build community journalism,” he said. “And I’m grateful to the small investors in Grant and Luna counties who have backed our vision and made this purchase possible.”

Silver City Independent Publishing has owned the Daily Press and Independent since 2014, when Seibel purchased the newspaper from the Ely family, which had owned it since 1934. The Silver City newspapers date back to the founding of the weekly Silver City Independent in 1896.

Dirks, Van Essen & April acted for Gannett in all three transactions, terms of which were not disclosed.