Last week The Economist Group announced its acquisition of the Congressional Quarterly, to be rolled into its RollCall publication. At that time, no price was announced. but I have learned through a source close to the competitive bidding process that the price was at least above $100 million. At that price most of the other bidders dropped off, and CQ closed the deal with RollCall. So it is likely around the $125 million range.

CQ, previously owned by the Times Publishing Co., the owner of the ailing St. Petersburg Times—which in turn is owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute—put CQ on the market early this year to focus on its Florida papers. It has been consistently profitable and had double-digit annual revenue growth in recent years.