BATON ROUGE— Baton Rouge-based Lamar Advertising Company, a leading owner and operator of outdoor advertising assets, announced today that it has acquired the assets of Newman Outdoor Advertising, bolstering its presence in the Midwest.

The acquisition, which closed this week, adds more than 2,250 billboard faces, including 73 digital displays, in North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and South Dakota.

Newman was founded in North Dakota in 1956 by Harold Newman, who began the business in his mother-in-law's garage painting signs to pay for college tuition. Over time, the company expanded into the manufacturing of traffic and road safety signs and into large-format printing and established a portfolio of billboard assets in New Mexico. The non-billboard businesses and billboards in the Southwest were previously divested.

"We are thrilled to add Newman's inventory, which will further strengthen our portfolio across the upper Midwest. The transaction immediately establishes us as the leading player in North Dakota," said Sean Reilly, Lamar's chief executive officer, in a prepared statement. "As a company with deep family roots ourselves, we admire the platform that the Newman family built and we appreciate their trust in Lamar to carry the business forward."

The purchase price, which was paid in cash, has not been disclosed.