Augusta, Ga. - Augusta-based Morris Communications Corp. has sold its Western Slope Publishing Group newspapers and a shopper in Colorado to Swift Newspapers Inc. of Reno, Nev., which owns five daily newspapers in Colorado.

President Will Morris made the announcement Friday, the day the transaction was finalized. No purchase price was disclosed.

Sold were a daily, The Glenwood Post in Glenwood Springs; five nondailies: The Citizen Telegram in Rifle, the Eagle Valley Enterprise in Eagle, the Roaring Fork Sunday in Basalt, the Valley Journal in Carbondale and the Snowmass Village Sun; and a free community paper (shopper), the Bargain Hunter in Glenwood Springs. Morris Communications' two Best Read Guides in Colorado and Aspen.com were not included in the transaction.

"We found ourselves reassessing our needs, and this seemed the logical choice for us to make," Morris said. "We feel good about Swift Newspapers, and we think that company will serve these properties and these communities well."

The Glenwood Post was included in Morris Communications' purchase of Topeka, Kan.-based Stauffer Communications Inc., completed in June 1995. The nondailies and the shopper were purchased in 1997 and 1998.

A privately held media company, Morris Communications, after the sale, owns 30 daily and nine nondaily newspapers. Its diversified holdings also include magazines and specialized publications, travel guides, outdoor advertising, radio broadcasting, book publishing and distribution and computer services.

The Colorado dailies owned by Swift Newspapers, a privately held company, are the Summit Daily News in Frisco, the Greeley Daily Tribune, the Vail Daily, the Aspen Daily Times and the Glenwood Independent. Swift also owns dailies in California, Nevada and Oregon, as well as nondaily newspapers and farm and ranch publications..