Another US community newspaper has changed hands with the acquisition of the Bennettsville Herald-Advocate in South Carolina by Scott and Corey Champion.

The chief executive and president team own Champion Media of the Carolinas, based in Mooresville, North Carolina, which currently owns more than 20 newspapers in six states.

Scott Champion says in the paper that the acquisition fits with current North Carolina properties and will help business partners in South Carolina to expand their current advertising reach.

The Herald-Advocate had been owned by Marlboro Publishing, of which Elisabeth McNiel was a third generation owner. It was founded in 1931 as the Marlboro County Herald by the Kinney family, which bought the Pee Dee Advocate 20 years later to create the current masthead.

Regional magazine Pee Dee Life, launched by the Herald-Advocate team in 2019, is included in the sale.

Champion owns newspapers in Robeson, Sampson and Bladen counties as well as the Laurinburg Exchange in Scotland County, the Richmond County Daily Journal in Rockingham and the Anson Record in Wadesboro North Carolina, plus the Newberry Observer and (Easley) Sentinel Progress in South Carolina.