Westplex Media Group, owner of the Warren County Record, announced last week that it has agreed to acquire the Moberly Monitor-Index from Gannett Co., Inc. It is the fourth community newspaper in Westplex’s portfolio.

Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Gannett in the transaction. Terms of the transaction, expected to close on Sept 1, were not disclosed.

Gannett’s portfolio includes USA TODAY and local media organizations in 46 states in the U.S. and Guam. Westplex is owned by Tim Schmidt, who has nearly 20 years of experience in the newspaper industry. Schmidt founded Westplex in 2018 when he purchased the Montgomery Standard, a weekly newspaper in Montgomery City.

Schmidt added a second weekly newspaper in October 2019 when he acquired The Record from the Missourian Media Group based in Washington. In August 2020, Westplex acquired its third newspaper in Missouri, the Mexico Ledger, from Gannett Co. 

“We are excited and honored about the opportunity to expand our family-owned company to Moberly and Randolph County,” said Schmidt. “The Monitor-Index has a proud history and we feel this is a natural fit to grow our company. We will work hard to publish a newspaper that the community can be proud of. We feel the newspaper industry has a bright future and we’re glad to work with Gannett a second time to make this deal happen.”

The Moberly Monitor-Index will continue to publish a printed newspaper on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with its distribution through the post office.

More details of changes, if any, will be announced as the transition takes place, said Schmidt.

The 152-year old Moberly Monitor-Index newspaper was started June 23, 1869 by Lafayette R. Brown under the name of The Monitor.