Community Publishers Buys Fourth Missouri Paper

In late May, Community Publishers Inc. of Bentonville announced that it is buying the Marshfield Mail, a weekly newspaper in Marshfield, Mo., east of Springfield.

In January, CPI said it had purchased Sterling Media Ltd., which owned three newspapers in the same region of Missouri – the Bolivar Herald-Free Press, the Buffalo Reflex and the Cedar County Republican in Stockton.

Also in May, CPI announced that it is buying the Northwest Arkansas Times of Fayetteville. The Times will be CPI’s second daily newspaper. The corporation already owned The Benton County Daily Record.

In addition to the four Missouri newspapers and the Times, CPI owns all the weekly newspapers in Benton County (six in that county).

CPI is controlled by Jim Walton, son of the late Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.