NATCHEZ — The Post-Searchlight and Post Printing of Bainbridge, Ga., has been sold to Bainbridge Media LLC, a newly formed Georgia company owned in part by two Natchez residents.

The transaction was legally closed Saturday. Agreement in general for the transaction was reached several weeks ago and the final details were worked out in the past week.

Bainbridge Media, LLC is majority owned by Todd H. Carpenter, president and COO of Boone Newspapers Inc. (BNI). Others with ownership are BNI and its key personnel, including Kevin Cooper, publisher of The Natchez Democrat and a vice president of BNI.

Carpenter and Cooper will both continue to live and work in Natchez.

Jeff Findley succeeds Sam Griffin Jr. as publisher of The Post-Searchlight, a twice-weekly newspaper published on Wednesdays and Saturdays with circulation of 7,300. The newspaper serves Bainbridge and surrounding areas of Georgia and Florida. Post Printing is large regional printing company that specializes in printing newspapers and shopping guide publications.

The newspaper will be managed by BNI, which is owned principally by its chairman, James B. “Jim” Boone Jr. of Tuscaloosa, Ala. The company publishes 29 daily and weekly newspapers in Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota.

Sam Griffin Jr. and Mary Ann Griffin, owners of The Bainbridge Post-Searchlight, Inc., are the sellers. The Post-Searchlight has been in the Griffin family since it was founded by E.H. “Pat” Griffin in 1907 as The Bainbridge Post. In 1915 Griffin bought The Searchlight, founded in 1898 by Russell Brinson, and combined the two newspapers into The Post-Searchlight.

“Mary Ann and I have lived and breathed this newspaper and this community for more than 45 years,” Sam Griffin said. “It’s been our lives. We have always been keenly aware of our responsibility to the legacy left by earlier Griffins and to the community the newspaper serves.

“It was our goal to find new owners who not only have the experience, resources and know-how necessary to take this newspaper forward into this community’s exciting future, but who also share the same commitments to the community and sense of responsibility to the past that we do.”

“The Griffin family and I share much in common. Sam and I each inherited good names. Sam has added value to his, and I trust I have done the same,” Boone said. “Each of us has devoted our lives to serving communities the size of Bainbridge, and each of us value greatly the talents and contributions of the people we work with.”

“I am honored Sam and Mary Ann Griffin chose our organization as their successor and will work hard to merit the confidence placed in us,” Carpenter said.