The owner of Anderson’s Herald Bulletin newspaper and a dozen other newspapers in Indiana is merging with another media company.  As Indiana Public Broadcasting’s Tyler Lake reports, that means these newspapers could soon be up for sale.

Raycom Media is merging with Gray Television group, a media conglomerate based out of Atlanta.

Raycom purchased CNHI, an owner of more than 100 newspapers across 22 states, nine months ago. Now the merger with Gray Television groups leaves CNHI and its papers up for sale.

Hoosier State Press Association Executive Director Steven Key says it’s tough to predict what the future of the newspapers in Indiana will look like.

“You could have a situation where all the CNHI newspapers are purchased by one entity or there may be a situation where the demand and value of them may be grouping them in geographic areas,” Key says.

He says that CNHI newspapers were already running very lean and he doesn’t think there is much room for cutbacks.

“If there would be any kind of consolidation, I’m not sure it would be felt necessarily at the reporter levels,” he says.

Key says he thinks it will take several months before the papers in Indiana would be up for sale.