The Delaware Gazette, the 208-year-old newspaper that covers Powell, Lewis Center and the rest of Delaware County, will change hands Sept. 1 when West Virginia-based HD Media LLC takes over from current owner AIM Media Management.

The Gazette is one of 19 Ohio newspapers included in the deal, which also covers six Indiana publications. Financial terms were not disclosed.

HD Media managing partner Doug Reynolds framed the purchase as a bet on local journalism's viability, not a nostalgia play.

"We aren't buying newspapers because we're nostalgic for the way the world used to be," Reynolds said in the company's Aug. 19 announcement. "We're buying them because we believe community newspapers have a future."

The acquisition brings HD Media's total portfolio to 35 publications across West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana. Founded in 2013 by Reynolds, the company already operates the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Gazette-Mail and The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Virginia. HD Media purchased the Portsmouth Daily Times from AIM Media in 2023. HD Media president Phil Perry told IndyStar that deal built the relationship behind the larger transaction.

Perry told The Herald-Dispatch the company had been working on the acquisitions for nearly a year.

What it means locally

For Powell and Lewis Center residents, the Gazette is the only newspaper dedicated to Delaware County coverage. Its history stretches to 1818, when it launched as the Delaware Gazette and Religious Informer. The Thomson family owned and operated the paper for 161 years before selling in 2004. It then passed through Brown Publishing Company, Ohio Community Media and Civitas Media before AIM Media acquired it in 2017.

The announcement did not identify any planned changes to the Gazette's staff, publication schedule, subscriptions or local coverage. Reynolds pledged that individual papers would keep their local identities.

That pledge comes with context: several AIM Media Ohio publications reduced their print frequency in 2023, citing rising costs, according to IndyStar. HD Media separately announced its flagship Herald-Dispatch will move to three print days per week starting Sept. 8.

Dallas-based AIM Media Management will continue to own and operate its Texas publications after the sale. The media firm Dirks, Van Essen & April represented AIM Media in the transaction.

The ownership transfer takes effect Sept. 1.