Sun Gazette Parent Company Sold

American Community Newspapers LLC, the parent company of the Sun Gazette and several other local publications, sold its Northern Virginia division to the Texas-based HPR Hemlock this week.

Despite the transaction, which had been planned since October 2011, according to Leesburg Today, the publications will remain focused on the local coverage and community journalism they have in some places provided for more than 70 years, executives said.

"HPR Hemlock will be relying on the people who have built these businesses to continue to run them as if they own them,” Richard L. Connor, a media executive overseeing the sale, told Leesburg today.

Along with the Sun Gazette that covers Arlington, the sale includes the property of the same name that covers Vienna, Oakton, Great Falls and McLean, along with Ashburn Today, Leesburg Today, Loudon Business, Loudoun Life and Middleburg Life. Together, the publications' circulation is more than 191,000.

American Community Newspapers has owned the Sun Gazette since 2005, according to a statement on its website Wednesday. The company has also sold publications in Minnesota, Texas and Ohio.

The statement said staff "will continue to make decisions locally because there are no corporate directives or corporate staff attempting to make what need to be local decisions and strategic initiatives.”

The paper was founded in 1930 as the Northern Virginia Sun newspaper.

For the Sun Gazette story, click here.