Ponte Vedra Recorder sold to S.C. company
Owners to close St. Augustine Underground
Posted: August 31, 2011 - 12:01am
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By JENNIFER EDWARDS
jennifer.edwards@staugustine.com
The Ponte Vedra Recorder has been sold to a South Carolina company, Recorder editor Mark Pettus said Tuesday, his last day on the job.
The move means that the St. Augustine Underground, a monthly newspaper, will stop publication immediately, Pettus said.
Pettus said Osteen Publishing, based in Sumter, completed this week the purchase of the paper and its other publications, including Clay Today and St. Augustine Underground.
"They're a newspaper family," he said. "They've been in the newspaper business since 1861."
Pettus said Publisher Vinnie Grassia was already let go, so he had expected to follow.
A message left for Grassia at the Recorder was not returned Tuesday afternoon.
Pettus, sounding resigned but optimistic, said he had expected the dismissal and was looking forward to finding another position -- though probably not another editorship.
"I would rather have been a reporter," he said. "I had a great boss ... but I'm a writer at heart."
Osteen Publishing owns the Sumter newspaper, The Item, a 17,000-circulation daily.
"Members of the Osteen family have been involved in newspapering in Sumter for over 150 years, which is believed to be the longest continuous family involvement in a newspaper in South Carolina," the Item website states. "It is also the oldest family-owned business in Sumter."
Pettus said the family likely had chosen to discontinue St. Augustine Underground because it wasn't as financially successful as expected, though he felt it contained some great work.
A representative of the Osteen family could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
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