The Economist Group buys Congressional Quarterly

The Economist Group is buying influential Washington publisher Congressional Quarterly.

CQ will be merged with the daily Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, which also reports on the US legislative process and has been owned by the Economist since 1992.

The cost of the acquisition was undisclosed and the new group will be called CQ-Roll Call Group.

Congressional Quarterly is owned by the Times Publishing Company, which owns the St Petersburg Times newspaper in Florida and is controlled by the Poynter Institute.

The CQ-Roll Call Group will also include CQ Weekly, a publication of record of congressional activity since 1945; Roll Call; and GalleryWatch, a legislation-tracking service.

Both companies have approved the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

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