Sarasota newspaper's parent firm sold for $280M

SARASOTA — The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the largest daily newspaper in the Sarasota-Bradenton market, has a new owner for the second time less than three years.

The new owner, according to a release, is New Media Investment Group, a New York City-based firm that publishes 450 community publications and 370 related websites in 27 states. New Media paid $280 million for Halifax Media Group, which publishes the Herald-Tribune and 35 other newspapers, including 24 dailies and the connected websites. Halifax Media Group, which also owned the Daytona Beach News-Journal, bought the Herald-Tribune from the New York Times Regional Media Group in December 2011.

New Media is managed by an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, an industry giant with $66 billion of assets under management. The chairman of the board of New Media is Wesley Edens,
a onetime partner and managing director of Lehman Bros. and BlackRock Financial Management who co-founded Fortress in 1998. Edens bought the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks in May with a business partner for $550 million.