CN Group is set to be sold to major publisher Newsquest Media Group Ltd.

CN Group – which runs print, digital and event brands covering Cumbria, Northumberland, north Lancashire, and the Scottish Borders – will be sold subject to shareholder approval. Completion of the deal is expected shortly after shareholders meet on Friday, March 9.

The company publishes several award-winning papers including the News & Star, Cumberland News, Times & Star, The Whitehaven News, The Mail and Hexham Courant. It also has a magazine division that includes Cumbria Life, Taste Cumbria, Bay Living, in-Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway Life, and runs the Choose Cumbria marketing campaign, which promotes the county as a place for a fantastic career and lifestyle.

In a statement, the board said it has taken the decision to end the independence of the group because it believed the “long-term future of the group, its staff and its pensioners is better protected as part of a larger, scaled operation”.

Robin Burgess, chairman of CN Group, said: “A member of my family has run this company for the past four generations so this sale is the end of an era and is tinged with sadness.

“However, our ability to prosper as a medium sized independent group, in light of digital and social media developments, has become increasingly difficult and it is clear that the challenges will only get harder.

“Faced with these and other issues, including the pension deficit, we came to the conclusion that a sale of the publishing business is the best way forward for all our stakeholders. We are confident that under new ownership the group’s titles and sites will continue to serve their communities as they have in the past.”

Chief executive Miller Hogg added: “It is vitally important for a local media company like CN to be part of a larger and committed regional media group like Newsquest.

“We still remain a local company with local brands serving the local community. This deal will provide certainty for our local staff for a sustainable future and with a media group capable of investing for the print and digital world we live in."

Henry Faure Walker, chief executive of Newsquest, commented: “We look forward to the opportunity of working with the CN Group, its staff and the community it represents in building on their great local brands and publishing expertise and helping them forge a strong future."