[{"text": "Ingersoll Publications Co. agreed to buy the New Haven Register in a transaction valued at $275 million from Goodson Newspaper Group Inc."}, {"text": "As part of the agreement, Goodson also terminated the contract under which Ingersoll manages Goodson's 66 newspapers, ending a long association between the two companies that has turned increasingly bitter recently."}, {"text": "Goodson has accused Ingersoll of paying less attention to its properties and more to such ventures as the recent launch of the St. Louis Sun."}, {"text": "Under the terms of the accord, Ingersoll will pay about $255 million for the Register, a daily that Goodson bought for about $170 million in 1986."}, {"text": "Goodson will pay the additional $20 million in settlement of the management contract."}, {"text": "Goodson also announced that it hired the former president and senior vice president of Ingersoll to run the Goodson papers."}, {"text": "Both executives left the company after clashes with Chairman Ralph Ingersoll Jr."}, {"text": "Goodson, which is based here, will use part of the proceeds to pay down debt associated with its purchase of the Morristown Daily Record for $155 million in 1987."}, {"text": "The New Jersey paper, like the New Haven, Conn., paper, was purchased by Ingersoll on Goodson's behalf as part of the management contract."}, {"text": "Industry analysts have said that the purchase price for the paper was too high, causing a strain on Goodson's finances."}, {"text": "Investment bankers familiar with the company said Goodson is seeking a new bank credit line of $190 million and may have to sell additional newspapers."}, {"text": "David N. Hurwitz, president and chief operating officer of Goodson, said in a telephone interview that the company doesn't currently have any plans to sell additional newspapers."}, {"text": "Goodson said David Carr, former president of Ingersoll Publications, and Ray Cockburn, former senior vice president, would head the new in-house management team at Goodson, which had revenue of $225 million in 1988."}, {"text": "The association between the two companies stretches back thirty years to a friendship between television producer Mark Goodson and Ingersoll founder Ralph Ingersoll."}, {"text": "The latter's son, Ralph Ingersoll Jr., took over the company and has been managing the Goodson properties and acting as an agent in the purchase of newspapers for Goodson."}, {"text": "But in recent years, Mr. Ingersoll began focusing more on expanding his own newspaper empire in partnership with investment banking firm Warburg, Pincus & Co. Ingersoll has 28 dailies and 200 other non-daily papers in the U.S. and Europe."}, {"text": "The company said its revenue will exceed $750 million this year."}, {"text": "Ingersoll President Robert M. Jelenic said in a statement that the company is 'delighted by the conclusion of the Goodson relationship' and will be able to 'concentrate all our energies' on Ingersoll's own papers."}, {"text": "Mr. Goodson, in his own statement, was less upbeat, saying 'unfortunately over the past few years, it has become increasingly clear that Ralph and I have different agendas,' and that he feels 'more comfortable with a management team whose sole interest and responsibility is in the Goodson papers.'"}]