Shedding Papers   

Hollinger sells off a bundle.

Just months after unloading 56 U.S. dailies and 34 weeklies, Chicago-based Hollinger International Inc. pares down its newspaper holdings even more. The group--which owns the Chicago Sun-Times and London's Daily Telegraph --sells 28 smaller dailies and 18 weeklies to Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. The $472 million transaction is expected to be completed early this year. Even with the sale, ``we're still the largest global newspaper group," says Todd Vogt , Hollinger's executive vice president of the community newspaper division. Hollinger is a division of Canadian-based Hollinger Inc. It owns more than 100 daily papers, including 61 in Canada and 31 in the United States, plus at least 40 U.S. weeklies and free-distribution titles. The deal makes the Community Newspaper group the owner of the largest number of daily newspapers in the country, says Michael Reed , the company's CFO. Not bad for an industry toddler. The Birmingham-based group made its first buy in February 1997. The papers trading hands are in 14 states, primarily Oklahoma, Kentucky and Texas.