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LOS ANGELES, CA, MAY 28, 2008 — Creators Syndicate and The Copley Press, Inc. today announced the companies have reached an agreement for Creators Syndicate to purchase Copley News Service. The sale will allow Creators to add Copley’s award-winning features to its current lineup, expand the reach of its existing columnists and cartoonists to Copley’s established subscriber network, and merge Copley assets and content with Creators. With the sale, effective July 1, 2008, Creators Syndicate will change the name of Copley News Service to Creators News Service.

“Copley News Service provides a great product and has a base of loyal newspaper and Internet customers,” said Creators President Richard S. Newcombe. “This purchase opens new markets for Creators columnists and cartoonists. By acquiring Copley’s services, Creators will have an even stronger product.”

San Diego-based Copley News Service was founded in 1955 and is one of the eight largest newspaper syndicates in the world. It distributes a wide variety of newspaper content, including editorial cartoonists Michael Ramirez, Steve Breen and Scott Stantis, opinion columnists Phyllis Schlafly and Jack Kemp, business writer Malcolm Berko, and dozens of lifestyle features. Ramirez was the 2008 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.

“We believe this is a good fit for our operation. Creators will maintain the high-quality standards we have set for our features,” said Copley News Service Vice President and Editor Glenda Winders. “We are confident this will provide a good home for our contributors and build on our reputation for excellent customer service.”

Los Angeles-based Creators Syndicate, founded in 1987, is one of the largest newspaper syndicates in the world, distributing more than 100 newspaper features to over 2,400 newspapers and Internet sites around the globe, including editorial cartoons by Mike Luckovich, Steve Benson, Gary Varvel and Chip Bok, columns by Robert D. Novak, Bill O’Reilly, Susan Estrich, Roland Martin, Pat Buchanan, Thomas Sowell and Mark Shields, the comic strips B.C., The Wizard of Id and One Big Happy, and the comic panels Speed Bump, Rubes and Ballard Street. Over the years, Creators Syndicate has been the editorial home for Ann Landers, Hillary Clinton when she was first lady, Molly Ivins, Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the legendary cartoonist Herblock. To find out more, visit www.creators.com.

JP Media Partners, a merger-and-acquisition firm for the newspaper industry based in Gold River, CA, is representing Copley News Service in the transaction.

For media inquiries on Creators Syndicate’s purchase of Copley News Service, please contact Anthony Zurcher.
Creators Syndicate
(310) 337-7003
azurcher@creators.com
www.creators.com

For further information about the Copley/Creators deal, check out these sites:

Editor and Publisher

WDTN.com

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