* Oy…

At an all-staff meeting today, News-Gazette Media CEO John Reed announced to employees that an agreement has been signed to sell substantially all of its assets to the family-owned Champaign Multimedia Group LLC, an affiliate company of Community Media Group. The sale is expected to close in early November.

CMG, headquartered in downstate West Frankfort, owns and operates community newspapers with websites in several Midwestern states, including Illinois, Indiana and Iowa, as well as newspapers in Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York.

The acquisition of News-Gazette Media will include three radio stations: WDWS, WHMS and WKIO, serving the Champaign-Urbana, Danville and East Central Illinois areas, Reed said. The acquisition will also include weekly newspapers, free distribution shoppers and websites serving Mahomet, Rantoul, Ford County, Piatt County and Vermilion County. […]

As part of the sale process, News-Gazette Media has filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code. Additionally, and in accordance with the state and federal regulations under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice Act (WARN), employees were provided with formal notice of a potential layoff planned to occur in the 14-day period beginning on Oct. 31.

However, CMG has indicated that it is developing plans for the rehire of numerous News-Gazette Media employees following the sale to Champaign Multimedia Group.

* Meanwhile, a reporter pal of mine was let go today because of this sale…

Shaw Media has agreed to acquire the NewsTribune and the Illinois and Indiana AgriNews weekly publications from Catherine Miller and Miller Group Media, company leaders announced Monday.

The sale is expected to close Sunday. Terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition of the publications adds to Crystal Lake-based Shaw’s network of daily and weekly newspapers and specialty publications, which cover 15 counties across northern Illinois, as well as part of Iowa.

The company’s daily newspaper holdings include LaSalle County’s other five-day-a-week newspaper, The Times of Ottawa, as well as the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, The Herald-News in Joliet, the Daily Chronicle in DeKalb, the Telegraph in Dixon and the Daily Gazette in Sterling.