Phillips Media acquires Sedalia Democrat

Phillips Media Group has acquired the daily Sedalia (Mo.) Democrat from North Carolina-based Civitas Media.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, N.M., represented Civitas Media in the transaction.

"Sedalia seems like a very solid community and we're excited to be involved with the Democrat. I look forward to meeting people in the community," Phillips Media President Jim Holland said. "What was attractive to us is that the Democrat fits our size of newspaper and Sedalia fits the size of town where we like to do business. We look forward to serving the people of Sedalia."

In the 1970s, the Phillips family and their companies, under the leadership of Rupert Phillips, owned newspapers in Yellville, Mountain Home, Berryville and Eureka Springs, Ark., as well as Nevada, Marshall and Maryville, Mo.

Phillips returned to ownership in Missouri and Arkansas in March 2015 with the acquisition of the Harrison Daily Times and Newton County Times in Arkansas and the Bolivar Herald-Free Press, the Buffalo Reflex, the Cedar County Republican, the Christian County Headliner News and the Nixa Express in Missouri. Phillips Media Group bought the properties from Community Publishers Inc. of Bentonville, Ark.

The Sedalia Democrat was founded in 1868 as a weekly newspaper and began its daily edition, originally called the Daily Democrat, in 1871. Civitas Media acquired the Sedalia operation from Freedom Communications in 2012.