The Daily Gazette recently announced that it has purchased three newspapers from McClary Media: the Recorder, Courier-Standard-Enterprise and Fulton County Express newspapers.

The deal was finalized on January 9 after several years of informal discussions between Recorder Publisher Kevin McClary and Gazette Publisher John DeAugustine, the Gazette reported.

When asked about his reasons for selling the Recorder, McClary told the Gazette that he wanted to sell to the Gazette as he wished the Recorder to continue to publish without him.

McClary’s company, McClary Media had five publications: The Recorder, Courier-Standard-Enterprise, Hamilton County Express, Fulton County Express and Adirondack Express. Each newspaper focuses on different parts of upstate New York region. The Recorder covers Amsterdam and the Mohawk Valley; the Courier-Standard-Enterprise reports on Canajoharie and surrounding communities; and the three Express newspapers focus on Hamilton County, Fulton County and Adirondack respectively.

While the Recorder publishes six days a week, the others are published only once a week. McClary Media has also ceased all printing activities, contracting The Gazette to print all five newspapers and also to deliver the Recorder.

The Gazette will maintain a separate identity from the three newspapers it is buying, DeAugustine told the Gazette, even as there may be some shared content among them. According to Gazette, the three newspapers will remain in publication and remain based in Amsterdam, although not in the same building off Route 5S where the office for The Recorder had been for decades.

McClary told the Gazette that this move comes at a right time as the lease for the building was about to expire and they had already removed the printing press from the premises.

The two publications McClary is retaining are geared towards covering a mountainous region with heavy tourism.

Over the years the number of people working for the Recorder has considerably decreased as McClary stopped replacing departing employees according to the Gazette.

McClary told the Gazette that he plans to keep six to seven out of the ten workers at McClary Media to run his smaller company.

According to the Gazette, it has also seen staff reductions but it has not needed to cut its newsroom to the same degree as some national chains because it has found a formula that works, DeAugustine told the Gazette.

Over time Gazette has expanded its contract printing, taking over competitors; created a sign-printing business; and leased out unused space in its headquarters building on Maxon Road Extension in Schenectady, according to the Gazette

Previously, McClary Media printed the Concordiensis; now the Daily Gazette does.