Edited sentence: In 1931 the business was incorporated as a private company in the name of G & A N Scott, the shares owned mostly by the Scott family and the Scott family Trust.On the 30 April 2008 Hirst, Kidd & Rennie, owners of the Oldham Chronicle newspaper aquired a significant equity stake in  and HKR Managing Director Philip Hirst joined the Rochdale Online Board.Rochdale Online, a large local news and information website, was developed by a local man, Malcolm Journeaux, and launched in June 1998.Source: Rochdale Observer Archives.Source: Rochdale Online History.The Observer ceased to be locally owned in 1975 when owners G & A N Scott sold the newspaper to the The Guardian & Manchester Evening News.The Rochdale Observer was set up by printers R and J W Lawton, based on The Butts, and its first issue was printed on Saturday 16 February 1856