Howard Publications was a family-owned company of 16 newspapers. The company was acquired by Lee Enterprises on February 12, 2002 for $694 million. Howard Publications also owned the Howard News Service, which was not part of the sale to Lee Enterprises. The company was originally headquartered at 5 World Trade Center in New York City, in which their office on the ninth floor was destroyed during the September 11 attacks in 2001. - Source: Wikipedia