Sample News Group, LLC is an American publisher of newspapers serving suburban and rural markets in the tri-state area of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, as well as in Vermont. The company is family owned and structured as a limited liability company. According to their website, their address is in State College, Pennsylvania. [1]
Sample News Group was founded by George Raymond Sample, Jr. (1924–2008). [2] [3] Sample was married to a woman named Janet. [4] As of October 2022, George "Scoop" Sample ( né George Raymond Sample III; born 1952),[ citation needed ] one of eight children of George Sample Jr., [5] is the CEO. [6] Scoop's hometown is Corry, Pennsylvania. [7] The group is also actively managed by Scoop's wife, Marlene Sample (aka "Sissie" Kane; née Marlene Sue Kane; born 1951).[ citation needed ]
The family of Joseph Franklin Biddle sold the Joseph F. Biddle Publishing Company to Sample in October 1991; the deal included Huntingdon's Daily News, as well as three other publications. [8]
In 2018, Sample purchased The Times Record and the Journal Tribune from Reade Brower. [9] That same year, Sample acquired two dailies in Vermont, sister papers Rutland Herald and The Times Argus, [10] purchasing them from Vermont Community Media, a company partially owned by Brower. [11] Two other weeklies and some websites were also included in the sale. [12] Brower's company had acquired the two dailies as well as the Rutland Reader and the Central Vermont Reader in 2016; [13] they are now both owned by Sample. [14] Also in 2018, Sample sold its Chester, Vermont paper The Message for the Week to KMA Publishing, who ended its publication. [15]
In early 2022, the group announced they had introduced a new publisher and a new VP of digital development to serve its holdings in southwestern Pennsylvania. [16] [17] later in 2022, the Titusville News-Journal was started by Sample. [18]
The Batavia Daily News and Livingston County News of Livingston County, New York and Genesee County, New York were purchased in 2023, [19] [20] from the Watertown, New York–based Johnson Newspaper Corporation. [21]
In November 2024, the company acquired Bee Group Newspapers from the Measer family. [22]
In May 2025, the company acquired the assets of the defunct Cortland Standard and announced plans to relaunch the paper. [23] In July 2025, Sample purchased Eagle News Group. [24]
The group, as listed on their website in October 2023, owns the following: