Ned and Diana Creighton have sold their multimedia information company covering Arizona state government, including Arizona Capitol Times, to Dolan Media Company.

The transaction was announced Thursday, April 28, and was effective immediately.

The Creightons and Dolan Media President Jim Dolan met with company employees Thursday to announce the sale. They simultaneously issued a joint news release.

“It’s time for this company to take the next step it needs to continue to grow with Arizona,” said Arizona News Service Publisher Ned Creighton, adding, “Dolan Media has the resources and experience to enable that expansion.”

Company President Diana Creighton added, “We are particularly happy with this transaction because Dolan has expertise and knowledge in our field and shares our values of dedication to clients and community. We think it’s a perfect match.”

“Arizona’s business and legal communities depend on this company for important coverage of the capitol and state government,” Jim Dolan said, adding. “If state government has a Bible, this is it. We are proud to be associated with it and we pledge to continue its tradition of speed, accuracy, fairness and insight.”

In addition to the Capitol Times, the purchase of Arizona News Service included Legislation On Line Arizona, an electronic legislative news service; the daily Arizona Legislative Report, published during legislative sessions; Yellow Sheet Report, an insider newsletter published three times a week during interim periods between legislative sessions; The Green Book, a widely used annual guide to the Arizona Legislature; and various magazine-format publications on the workings of state government.

Dolan appointed Ginger Lamb as vice president and publisher supervising all of Dolan Media’s operations in Arizona. Lamb’s appointment is effective immediately. The Creightons retired after selling the company and intend to remain active in Arizona’s arts and cultural communities.

The business has 24 fulltime employees, all of whom Dolan said would be retained. The company will remain near the capitol at 1835 W. Adams Street in a building that was included in the transaction.

Arizona News Service has a long and illustrious history stretching back more than a century, longer than Arizona has been a state.

Ned Creighton’s grandfather, also named Ned, began serving business clients by providing information on Arizona territorial government early in the 20th century, founding Arizona News Service in 1906 to publish a legislative newsletter.

In 1946 the founder’s son, Robert, added a newspaper, then called the Messenger and later renamed the Arizona Legislative Review. Robert’s son, Ned Creighton, took over the business in 1970, and his wife, Diana, joined the firm in 1980. In 1982 they renamed the newspaper the Arizona Capitol Times to reflect its expanded coverage of state government

In 1984 they added the online tracking service, known by the acronym LOLA, one of the first such services in the United States. LOLA provides bill-tracking services and extensive coverage of the legislative process and state government.

Lamb said Dolan Media has pledged to invest resources to continue Arizona News Service’s growth. She is moving to Phoenix from Kansas City, where she has been vice president and publisher of Dolan Media’s Kansas City Daily Record, a daily business newspaper.

Lamb is a native of Rochester, NY, and was the editor of the Rochester Daily Record when it was acquired by Dolan Media in 1998. She has run the Kansas City newspaper since Dolan Media 2001. Her husband, David, is a mechanical designer and a professional golfer.

The Creightons were advised in the transaction by Jim Afinowich of Fox & Fin Financial Group, LC, Scottsdale, and Ted Rickenbacher of Rickenbacher Media, Inc., Dallas.

Closely held Dolan Media, based in Minneapolis, is a leading provider of highly targeted, specialized business information products and services. It operates daily and weekly business newspapers, including law and business publications and electronic information services, in 21 U.S. metro markets. Its New York City-based Counsel Press is the nation’s largest provider of appellate legal services and its Greene & Associates telemarketing unit is a leading business-to-business teleservices company based in Lincolnshire, IL.—