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Speidel Newspapers, Inc. was an American newspaper publisher with properties in the west and midwestern United States. It announced a merger with Gannet in 1976 that grew the combined company to 73 newspapers.[1][2]
The company was founded as Merritt Speidel and associates by Merritt C. Speidel in 1921 with the help of John Ben Snow.[3]
The company started with the Iowa City Press-Citizen.[4] In 1936, the company bought the Fort Collins Express-Courier which would become the Fort Collins Coloradoan.[5] It added the Poughkeepsie Evening Star and Enterprise and the Poughkeepsie Morning Eagle-News (predecessors of the Poughkeepsie New Yorker) in 1941.[6] The Visalia Times-Delta became the company's 7th newspaper in 1948.[7]
Speidel retired from his namesake company in 1956.[8] He died four years later in 1960. At the time, the group included the Poughkeepsie New Yorker, Chillicothe Gazette, the Evening Gazette and Evening State Journal, Fort Collins Coloradoan, the Sailinas Daily Californian, and the Visalia Times-Delta.[4]
Speidel was the target of a potential takeover attempt by Thomson Newspapers in 1974 which it took steps to block.[9]
When it merged with Gannett in 1976, 13 newspapers were part of the company.[10] At the time, the newspapers included the St. Cloud Times, the Argus Leader, the Fort Collins Coloradoan, the Record, the Fremont Tribune, and others.[11][12]
When it merged with Gannett, Speidel consisted of the following newspapers:
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