The Sarasota Herald-Tribune and its parent company, Halifax Media, were sold to New Media Investment Group, the newspaper reported Thursday. The move comes three years after Halifax bought the newspaper and other regional publications from the New York Times Company.

Halifax Media, according to its website, publishes 36 newspapers, most of them in the Southeast United States. The Herald-Tribune was among 16 papers purchased by the fledging media company in 2011. Halifax is based in Daytona Beach.

New Media Investment Group is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. According to its website, the company focuses on investing in a portfolio of high-qulaity local media. "We are one of the largest publishers of locally based print and online media in the United States as measured by number of daily publications. We operate in over 370 markets across 27 states," reads the New Media website. "Our portfolio of products, which includes 450 community publications, over 370 related websites, and six yellow page directories, serves more than 130,000 business advertising accounts and reaches approximately 14 million people on a weekly basis."

Halifax advertises that its dailies together have a combined 720,000 Sunday circulation and 635,000 daily subscription. New Media has reported it will spend $280 million in a cash transaction to buy Halifax. In 2011, Halifax paid $143 million in cash to buy the Herald-Tribune and other NYT regional papers.