WARSAW — The Times-Union will remain in the Williams family, according to an announcement by Lane Williams Hartle, chairwoman of Reub Williams & Sons Inc., owner of the Warsaw newspaper. An agreement has been entered to sell the local daily publication to current shareholder Chandler M. Williams and new co-owner Erin L. Williams.

The transaction is expected to close March 31. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

The company announced in January it had engaged Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, Santa Fe, N.M., a merger and acquisition firm, to explore a possible sale of the company. Hartle said the owners were impressed with the number of parties showing an interest and the quality of proposals.

It was after a thorough review, the company decided the proposal submitted by Chandler Williams and Erin Williams was the strongest. Shareholders of the company are glad the ownership will remain in the hands of the Williams family.

The Williams family has owned the newspaper since 1854 when Gen. Reub Williams founded the Northern Indianian, later evolving into the Warsaw Daily Times. In the 1940s the Williams family purchased the other daily newspaper in town, the Warsaw Union, merging both into the Times-Union.

The Times-Union is a 8,000-circulation daily, which has served Warsaw and neighboring communities in Kosciusko County for over 160 years.