Craig’s List ad leads to Sun-Times sale

You just never know what you’ll find on Craig’s List. For Eloise Ham, a 40 year old from Los Angeles, and her fiancé, it has led to a new life in St. John. Ham is the new owner of the St. John Sun-Times. The first issue under her watch hits the streets next week.

Ham tells On-StJohn she and fiancé Tyler had just finished a month long soul searching trip through Europe and Iceland, when they ran across a Craig’s List ad for a newspaper on a Caribbean Island for sale. They decided to take a chance and called owner Tom Paine, and agreed to a 10 day visit. “I was worried about there being too few stories, about making new friends, all the things associated with a major move,” Ham says. “After eight days we had fallen in love. It was a mystical, magical thing.”

Tyler’s new job is general manager at villa rental company Catered To.

Paine, who has overseen the Sun-Times for the past three years, and family will focus on life in Vermont, where his 7 year old daughter will enroll in an artistic school for young children.

Paine will return to teaching at Middleburry College in Northern Vermont and write fiction. “My motivation [to sell] was pretty simple. After three years I wanted to go back to writing fiction,” Paine tells On-StJohn. “But our primary goal as a family is our daughter.”

When asked if the paper would take on a more serious slant, Ham says read the May 2^nd edition. “This is an island that is facing an uncertain future. There is a lot of development going on,” she says. “I have a degree in city planning and my father is a resort developer, so I’m not new to these issues.” She says she will endeavor to not take sides, but says the paper will take on more serious issues.

“But there will also be more fluff,” she says. “Afterall, I’m from Los Angeles.”

Though he wouldn’t disclose the sales price, when asked if his investment paid off, Paine said “We did alright.”  And with summers off, Paine says he still expects to spend a lot of time on St. John.