Sun-Times company to be sold for more than $20 million

A group of investors led by Merrick Ventures LLC CEO Michael Ferro Jr. and Madison Dearborn Partners LLC Chairman John Canning Jr. is expected to pay more than $20 million to acquire Chicago's second-largest newspaper company, Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC, according to sources familiar with the transaction.

The new owners will tap Tim Knight, CEO of Chicago-based Internet company CraftEdu and a former Tribune Co. executive who was publisher of New York tabloid Newsday, to lead the enterprise formed by the new owners, a source familiar with that appointment said. Knight joined Tribune in 1996 from law firm Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom LLP, where he was a lawyer, and held several posts in Chicago, including at the Chicago Tribune, before shifting to Newsday in 2003 to become an executive vice-president and general manager. A year later, he became president and chief operating officer at the paper before being promoted to publisher and CEO in 2004. He resigned in 2009 and now lives in suburban Chicago. Ferro and Canning, a member of Merrick Ventures' board, appear to be making the investments as individuals and not through their firms. They are also both board members at the Chicago News Cooperative, a non-profit that provides local news content twice weekly to the New York Times and publishes on its own website.