DeKALB - The Daily Chronicle was purchased Monday by the third-oldest continuously owned family newspaper company in the United States. Shaw Newspapers, a 156-year-old media company, announced Tuesday afternoon that it had acquired Northern Illinois Publishing - which is publisher of the Daily Chronicle, The MidWeek and affiliated publications. Shaw didn't announce terms of the sale. NI Publishing had been owned since 2005 by the publicly traded Lee Enterprises, which is based in Davenport, Iowa. Privately owned Shaw Newspapers, which has its headquarters in Dixon, publishes newspapers, niche publications and Web sites in Dixon, Sterling, Princeton, Morris, Geneva and Crystal Lake in Illinois and in Newton and Creston in Iowa. The Daily Chronicle will become a part of Shaw Suburban Media, headquartered in Crystal Lake. That group includes two other daily newspapers, the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake and the Kane County Chronicle in Geneva; two weekly groups, Lake County Journals and Weekly Journals in Elgin; a bilingual weekly, El Conquistador; the monthly McHenry County Business Journal; and several Web sites. Shaw Suburban Media has two divisions: Northwest News Group and Chronicle News Group. John Pfeifer, publisher of the Daily Chronicle since September 2006, will be publisher of Chronicle News Group. "While many acquisitions are subsidized by 'cost savings,' the Chronicle's purchase by Shaw Suburban Media Group gives us the opportunity to grow our advertising market share and marshal resources to provide readers with an even more local daily newspaper," Pfeifer said. "Efficiency gets an organization only so far; most of the work and all of the fun lies in determining the Chronicle News Group's future business opportunities." Chronicle News Group includes two daily newspapers, the Daily Chronicle and the Kane County Chronicle, which serves Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles and western Kane County. The group also includes The MidWeek, Valley Free Press, NI Business Connection and Shaw's Weekly Journals, which has six newspapers in DeKalb, Kane and McHenry counties. "I'm very excited with my new responsibilities," Pfeifer said. "I look forward to continue working with our employees here in DeKalb and getting to know those working at the Kane County Chronicle and Weekly Journals." Pfeifer will report to John Rung, chief operating officer of Shaw Suburban Media and publisher of the Northwest Herald. Rung, who met Tuesday afternoon with the NI Publishing staff, said the papers were a good fit for his group. "Northern Illinois Publishing is a terrific addition to Shaw Newspapers and Shaw Suburban Media," Rung said. "In the greater Chicago area, we will now have a significant footprint in Lake, McHenry, Kane and DeKalb counties. The extended reach and greater resources will allow us to better serve our print and online readers, and our advertisers." Among the changes announced Tuesday will be to consolidate all printing for Chronicle News Group in DeKalb. The current Kane County Chronicle office and production facility in Geneva will be closed April 1, and the building there will be sold. News, advertising and circulation employees in Geneva will move to a new office building in St. Charles. Tom Shaw, president and CEO of Shaw Newspapers, indicated that his company has had a long-standing interest in the Daily Chronicle. "We have courted them for more than a decade," Shaw said. "We are so pleased today to be welcoming DeKalb to our family of dynamic, community-based, multimedia enterprises." Shaw added: "We are a vibrant and innovative information company, prospering in a challenging and competitive economic environment. The addition of DeKalb to our family of companies is an absolute jewel of significant value, due in part to the combined synergies available with some of our other regional properties." All employees of Northern Illinois Publishing who pass a routine drug screen and background check will be offered jobs with Shaw at their current pay rate, Rung said. --- On the Net Read more about the history and highlights of Shaw Newspapers online at http://www.daily-chronicle.com.