Family owned EO Media Group agrees to sale to Mississippi-based media company

Pendleton, OR — October 23, 2024 — Carpenter Media Group announced today that a preliminary agreement has been reached to acquire the assets of EO Media Group, a respected family-owned media company with deep roots in the Pacific Northwest. The acquisition includes EO Media Group’s portfolio of more than two dozen newspapers and magazines across Oregon and Washington.

Titles include EO Media Group’s flagship newspaper, the East Oregonian (OR), GO! Eastern Oregon (OR), The Astorian (OR), Chinook Observer (WA), Seaside Signal (OR), Our Coast Magazine (OR/WA), The Bulletin (OR), Redmond Spokesman (OR), GO! Central Oregon (OR), Rogue Valley Times (OR), GO! Rogue Valley (OR), Discover Our Coast (OR/WA), Coast River Business Journal (OR/WA), The Hermiston Herald (OR), La Grande Observer (OR), Baker City Herald (OR), Blue Mountain Eagle (OR), the Wallowa County Chieftain (OR), Oregon Capital Insider (OR), The Other Oregon magazine (OR), Capital Press (OR/WA/ID), and Grower’s Guide (WA).

Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is representing EO Media Group in the transaction.

Founded in 1908, East Oregonian Publishing Company — now known as EO Media Group — has been guided by four generations of the Aldrich and Forrester families, making it a pillar of community journalism in the region. The company’s flagship publications, such as the East Oregonian and The Astorian, have become staples of local news coverage, recognized for their commitment to quality journalism and deep community ties. The company acquired many community weeklies and the Capital Press over the years. The Bulletin and Redmond Spokesman were acquired in 2019. In 2023, after the closure of the Medford Mail Tribune, EO Media Group began publishing the Rogue Valley Times.

Stephen A. Forrester, President and CEO of EO Media Group, and his cousin Kathryn B. Brown, Vice President of the company, reflected on the emotional significance of this transition and the family’s long history in publishing.

“The roots of my sentiment stretch back to the 1950s, when I first entered the old East Oregonian building in Pendleton,” Forrester shared. “My father’s office had once been my grandfather’s, Edwin Burton Aldrich. Over decades, our family has worked to build lasting connections with the communities we serve, especially in places like Pendleton and Astoria.”

Brown and Forrester highlighted several examples of EO Media’s community impact.

“My great-grandfather and the East Oregonian were involved in starting the Pendleton Round-Up, and my grandmother, Amy Bedford, put much of her life into creation of the Pendleton River Parkway,” Brown said.

Forrester added, “In Astoria, The Daily Astorian led a decade-long drive to restore the Liberty Theater. And in John Day, we were enormously proud of our publisher of the Blue Mountain Eagle, Marissa Williams, and our editor Scotta Callister for standing up to the Aryan Nation, which sought to establish a new homeland in Grant County in 2010.”

These efforts are chronicled in “Grit and Ink: An Oregon Family’s Adventures in Newspapering, 1908- 2018,” a history of the family’s contribution to journalism by William Willingham.

The impending sale marks the continuation of EO Media Group’s mission under new leadership, ensuring that the publications that have long been part of the cultural fabric of the Pacific Northwest will remain vital to the communities they serve.

Carpenter Media Group, led by Chairman Todd Carpenter, has expressed a deep respect for the legacy of the Forrester family and a commitment to continuing the tradition of high-quality, community- focused journalism.

“We plan to build on the foundations put down by the Forrester family as we continue to innovate and work to support true professional journalism for each community served,” said Carpenter. “We know our readers depend on us for timely reporting of facts so they can be informed and contribute to improvement of the places they live. We pledge to work hard to meet that obligation as we simultaneously work to serve small and medium-size business with marketing programs that strengthen the business, the community and thus the newspaper. We are all in it together and have a vested interest in strengthening the institutions that make us a community, beginning with its newspaper.”

Prior to chairing CMG, Carpenter was a longtime CEO and director of Boone Newsmedia, Inc. (BNI), which, including CMG’s holdings along with its own, managed 85 newspaper titles, various magazines, websites and other businesses in 12 states. After separating CMG holdings last year from BNI and recent acquisitions, CMG now owns and manages more than 250 titles in the U.S. and Canada.

For more information on Carpenter Media Group: carpentermediagroup.com For more information on EO Media Group: eomediagroup.com

For more information on Dirks, Van Essen and April: dirksvanessen.com

This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.