The agreement for sale of operating assets and real estate of The Valley Times-News by Valley Newspapers, Inc. and its owner, Nell Dunn Walls, to Valley Newsmedia, LLC, a subsidiary of Boone Newspapers, Inc. (BNI) of Tuscaloosa, Ala., was finalized and effective October 1.

The office for The Valley Times-News will remain in Lanett -West Point, Ga. in its present location and its current staff based there, with the exception of publisher Cy Wood, who retired in September in plans he and his family made earlier this year that do not relate to The Valley Times-News’ new ownership.

BNI manages newspapers in similar sized communities in Alabama, Georgia, in which The LaGrange Daily News is a BNI affiliate, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, Michigan, Mississippi, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.

The new publisher of The Valley Times-News is Baker Ellis, who also is publisher of the Times-News’ now affiliated publication in LaGrange. There are no plans to merge the two newspaper operations, but the close proximity of one to the other is a major mutual advantage.

Both The Valley Times-News, LaGrange Daily News, The Selma Times-Journal, and others, are all part of the Gulf Coast Group division of Boone Newspapers with newspaper affiliates in Alabama and Georgia, which is managed by Selma Times-Journal publisher Dennis Palmer, and served by a BNI accounting center led by Jay Davis and operated out of the Times-Journal’s office in Selma.

Both Palmer and Davis are BNI vice presidents.

“We are honored to succeed Nell Walls, appreciate the strong foundations she and her late husband Tom Walls put down for these newspapers,” Jim Boone, chairman of BNI, said. “My family and I will see that our obligations are fulfilled to these communities and the Walls Family.”