The sale of Graves Publishing Co. to Leader editor John R. Schirmer was closed Tuesday afternoon in Nashville.
Schirmer bought the assets of Graves Publishing for an undisclosed amount. The deal includes the Nashville News, Glenwood Herald, Murfreesboro Diamond and Montgomery County News.
The News was Howard County’s oldest continuously operating business, dating back to 1878. The paper printed its final issue Tuesday afternoon. Earlier in the day, the News hosted a Chamber of Commerce coffee at its office on North Main Street.
With the sale, the Leader is the remaining newspaper in Nashville. It is now the News-Leader and likely will remain at its current location at 119 N. Main.
Some of the staff members from the News will join the News-Leader staff next week.
Schirmer said the sale marks “the end of 13 years of intense competition between the papers. I think that having one newspaper will be good for our advertisers, readers and the community in general. We will continue to provide this area with the best newspaper that we can produce.”
