A Lawrence-based software firm that provides services for online news sites across the country has reached a preliminary deal to be purchased by a Chicago e-publishing company.

Leaders with Lawrence’s The World Company have announced that a letter of intent has been signed to sell the company’s Ellington CMS and Marketplace software to ePublishing Inc. The pending deal comes after The World Company announced a structured reduction of operations in June.

The pending sale will allow ePublishing Inc. to begin serving the clients who use the Ellington software system for their websites. ePublishing plans to continue to support, develop and sell both Ellington CMS and Marketplace as distinct state-of-the-art products in the ePublishing portfolio.

The World Company, which is the parent company of the Journal-World and LJWorld.com, announced in June that it was phasing out its work with Ellington as part of a corporate strategy to re-emphasize a digital and local focus.

“Online and mobile technologies are accelerating in sophistication and play an increasingly key role for media companies, who as a group have the absolute highest requirements,” said Bill Fowle, director of digital operations for The World Company. “Ellington has been a leader for over a decade, and transitioning our clients to the best possible service, technology, infrastructure and expertise was paramount. We found that in ePublishing.”

Ellington staff members are being retained and are available to clients for implementations and ongoing support.

Ellington was launched in 2000 as a business venture of the Lawrence Journal-World. Ellington’s feature-rich Web content management system and local business search service Marketplace have grown to serve more than 300 websites in North America. ePublishing is a cloud-based SaaS provider of integrated content management, eCommerce, and customer relationship management solutions serving publishers since 1997.