After 127 years, it was time to cash in, shareholders of the family-run Pulitzer Inc. have decided.

The name that goes to the top prize in U.S. journalism will no longer be on any newspapers, as Pulitzer is selling out to Lee Enterprises Inc.

An excerpt from the AP story carried on thestar.com:

By adding Pulitzer's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Arizona Daily Star, 12 other dailies, the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis and other publications, Davenport, Iowa-based Lee will own 52 daily newspapers and a joint interest in six others and publish more than 300 weekly newspapers, shoppers and specialty publications.

The company's newspapers will have combined circulation in 23 states of 1.7 million daily and two million Sunday. The combined business will have revenue of $1.1 billion based on 2004 figures.

Pulitzer chose Lee over Gannett Co., America's biggest newspaper publisher whose 101 U.S. newspapers include USA Today.

Lee and Pulitzer have said the deal would mesh two newspaper publishers with similar cultures and values, beginning with their long histories. Lee is 114 years old and Pulitzer dates to 1878, when Joseph Pulitzer merged the St. Louis Dispatch and the Post.