A publicly traded publishing firm is buying the Columbus Dispatch, what the Cleveland Plain Dealer calls "one of the few remaining metro-sized newspapers in the United States that was family owned." The Dispatch's publisher told readers, "We concluded the paper’s future success is most enhanced within a newspaper company that has both regional and national reach, as well as strong marketing and digital operations, providing the economies of scale essential for optimum efficiency." Presumably, the Seattle Times, which has a much richer journalistic history, still has some additional room for independent operation in a larger market.
