Regional Independent Media Scotland Ltd, part of the RIM Group, is to acquire The Galloway Gazette.

The deal includes three paid for weeklies, the Galloway Gazette and Stranraer News, the Stornoway and West Coast Advertiser and the Carrick Gazette.

Still subject to approval by the Trade and Industry secretary, it will also see the transfer of Stornoway Gazette Ltd and McElroy Printers Ltd.

Galloway Gazette managing director and owner Iain Brown said he was selling to help the long-established and respected titles to continue to be developed as part of a group with bigger resources.

He said: “I will be continuing to work in the business and I believe that the sale will be good for all activities and for the staff.”

RIM says it plans no redundancies at the three companies to be acquired.

RIM group MD Ernest Petrie said: “We are pleased to have acquired the Galloway and Stornoway companies with their strong local titles and quality printing business which represents a major step in growing RIM’s Scottish interests.”

Other Scottish RIM titles include the Advertiser (covering Dalkeith and South Midlothian), the Musselburgh News, the East Lothian News, the Lothian Times, the Peebles Times and the Alloa and Hillfoots Wee County News.

The company publishes seven evening newspapers, including the Yorkshire Post and Sheffield Star, sixty five weekly paid for and free newspapers and a number of magazines and specialist titles.

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