A single company now controls both newspapers in the Border City.
The Source announced the acquisition of the Booster on Thursday. According to the announcement, the Source’s publisher, Reid Keebaugh, is happy to be once again in control of the Booster. The paper was one of three regional publications sold to Bowes Publishers back in 1995, by Reid’s father, Byron Keebaugh.
The announcement also indicated that the deal was finalized last week.
As for what the ownership change will mean for the two papers, the Source’s general manager, Kent Keebaugh, has said that it will be “business as usual” on both fronts.
“A news story in the Source today, there will be a similar story in the Booster tomorrow,” said Keebaugh.
“Basically, we’re operating as two separate entities, with two separate carrier forces.”
Keebaugh said that Postmedia wire stories will no longer be seen in the pages of the Booster.
“We’ll lose those, obviously, and we’ll generate our own stories as we do at the Source,” said Keebaugh.
“The Booster will generate their own stories here in town; they’ll be an independent paper.”
Keebaugh said that “synergies” would also be looked for when it came to the workers in both publications. He also indicated that three new positions were likely to be created from the move, in the areas of graphic design and composition.
“For the time being, editorial will be run separately, with Taylor (Weaver) being in charge at the Booster and Mike (D’Amour) being in charge here (the Source),” said Keebaugh.
“Once we see everything that we’ve got, and we see what the Source can put out and what the Booster can put out, and working together, while at the same time having a healthy competitive spirit, we’ll see what happens in the future. To say something is going to happen, I can’t really tell you until we know what we have, in both operations.”