Sound Publishing, Inc. announced the purchase of the Enumclaw Courier-Herald and its sister publication in Bonney Lake.

The Courier-Herald newspapers had previously been owned by a group made up of the estate of Ted Natt, John Natt, David Natt, and publisher Bill Marcum. Marcum will remain in his current position with Sound Publishing.

Each edition of the Courier-Herald newspapers reaches approximately 32,000 readers and is distributed free to readers from Black Diamond to Bonney Lake.

Manfred Tempelmayr, president of Sound Publishing, assured readers there are no immediate plans to change the way they’ve been receiving their news. “It’s business as usual,” he said.

Sound Publishing, with headquarters in the Kitsap County community of Poulsbo, is a subsidiary of Black Press, based in British Columbia. The parent organization owns more than 150 newspapers in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, along with Washington, Hawaii and Ohio. The largest papers in the group are the Akron (Ohio) Beacon and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. On Whidbey Island, it owns the Whidbey News-Times and South Whidbey Record.

Sound Publishing has been making inroads through the Puget Sound region in recent years. The group purchased 10 publications in November 2006 from Horvitz Newspapers and shortly thereafter expanded its reach by moving those publications into the communities they serve and launching newspapers in Sumner, Covington/Maple Valley and Issaquah.

“The Enumclaw and Bonney Lake newspapers fit very nicely with what we’re doing,” said Tempelmayr. He termed the new association “a great marriage.”