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Paxton Media Group (PMG) has acquired Kernersville (North Carolina) News, a twice-weekly newspaper published by the Carter/Owensby-Harrell family since its launch in 1938. The terms were not disclosed. “It is time for the family to move on,” the family says. Kernersville News joins almost 20 other Paxton newspapers in North Carolina, which are managed by group publisher Jana Thomasson.

Pennsylvania is the latest state that could stop jurisdictions from paying newspapers for publishing their legal notices. The State Senate whip, Sen. Ryan Aument (R), is calling for a study to assess the cost of paid public notices. This would include all locales statewide. That study, he wrote, “will go a long way to helping the Legislature decide if continued advertising in print newspapers is still the best method to ensure this important information reaches the public.”

Simon & Schuster has acquired Veen Bosch & Keuning, the largest Dutch book publishing house. The acquisition includes all of VBK's imprints in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as its sister companies, the audiobook producer Thinium, and Bookchoice, a subscription-based platform for e-books and audiobooks. Financial terms of the cash acquisition, which is still subject to review, were not disclosed. The move marks the first major instance of a promised international expansion of S&S, which CEO Jonathan Karp alluded to last year following the acquisition of S&S by private equity firm KKR. The acquisition is also S&S's first of a non-English-language publisher, and provides the company a new foothold in the European market, where "the companies aim to provide a better avenue to sell, produce, and distribute... titles in Europe and to publish more S&S titles locally," as per a release.