By business editor Trevor Sturgess

A loss-making Kent publisher has been sold for an undisclosed sum to a Norfolk-based media business.

KOS Media Publishing, which operates from Smeeth, near Ashford, and is known mainly for its Kent on Sunday partly free, partly paid-for weekly, has been taken over by Archant.

Kent on Sunday was launched in 2002 and for some time Archant was rumoured to be giving financial support.

But this was only confirmed recently in Archant's annual report which described KOS as an "associated company".

It disclosed that Archant, which has its headquarters in Norwich, had been a minority shareholder in the Kent group since 2005.

In the past two years alone, it has pumped £500,000 into the ailing business.

It said: "Archant's share of the associate's losses grew from £158,000 to £196,000 owing to the shortfall in advertising revenues, with the second half of the year an improvement on the first."

KoS was set up eight years ago by Paul Stannard, a former Adscene, Kent Regional Newspapers and Trinity Mirror Southern executive.

The company also publishes Kent on Saturday, several free weekly newspapers and magazines and associated websites as well as producing an internet-based TV service.

The company employs around 70 full-time staff.

KM Group is the county's only family-owned, independent media group.