LaPlace Newsmedia LLC, a new Louisiana entity wholly owned by Carpenter Newsmedia LLC, or CNL, purchased L’Observateur of LaPlace and related publications Tuesday from Wick Communications Co. of Sierra Vista, Ariz.  

CNL is an affiliate of Boone Newspapers Inc., or BNI, with offices in Natchez, Miss., and Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The sale ends nearly three decades years of operation of the newspaper by Wick Communications.

J Kennon will continue at L’Observateur as publisher. Todd Carpenter of Natchez, BNI’s president and chief operating officer for the past 10 years, is principal owner of CNL, which also recently purchased The Picayune (Miss.) Item and Poplarville (Miss.) Democrat. James B. Boone Jr. of Tuscaloosa is BNI’s chairman and chief executive officer.

Carpenter said he and Boone are “deeply appreciative of the confidence Wick has placed in CNL and BNI as their successors, and we will work hard to merit that confidence.”  

Boone said he shares that appreciation for an opportunity to work with and for L’Observateur and the people and communities it serves.

“We are pleased J Kennon will remain as publisher,” Carpenter said. “Her steady leadership and knowledge of community newspapers will be important to us during the transition and thereafter. We look forward to becoming a part of the communities and parish served and will work hard to meet our every obligation to readers, customers, employees and all who have a stake in the future of LaPlace and the surrounding communities.”

CNL has ownership in BNI affiliates in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.  

BNI owns and manages 56 newspapers in similar-sized communities. In addition to those in which CNL has ownership interest, there are also papers are in Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio. Operations near LaPlace include The Brookhaven (Miss.) Daily Leader, The Natchez (Miss.) Democrat and The Vicksburg (Miss.) Post. The organization has a rich history of quality newspapers, websites, magazines and other publications in the communities it serves, explained in part by Boone’s corporate philosophy: “We seek to produce the highest quality product the economics of the community served can support. And then, by ingenuity and imagination, we strive for a higher quality in an effort to serve and build that community.”

John Mathew of Namekagon Newspaper Services represented the seller.