OC Register Completes Purchase Of Riverside Press-Enterprise

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The publisher of the Orange County Register has finalized its purchase of the Riverside Press-Enterprise for more than $27 million.

Closure of the deal was announced Thursday. Freedom Communications Inc., which publishes the Register, bought the paper from Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corp.

The companies' joint statement didn't indicate whether there might be any staff or editorial changes.

Freedom will now own the largest daily newspaper in inland Southern California, with a weekday circulation of about 138,000. The newspaper's coverage base is east of Los Angeles in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Freedom also owns the Daily Press in Victorville and the Desert Dispatch in Barstow, along with a new daily, the Long Beach Register.

Belo's papers include The Dallas Morning News and The Providence Journal in Rhode Island.

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