The Baltimore Sun Co. said yesterday that it has sold its subsidiary that designs custom signs to focus on what it does best - running newspapers.

The company said it has sold Signs of Distinction Inc., which it created in 1997 to operate Fastsigns stores in the Baltimore area, to Full Color Graphics Inc.

Full Color Graphics is run by John Hooper, who had been the general manager of the five Fastsigns locations, and Craig Shaffer, who will be leaving his position as the director of product and sales development for The Sun.

The Baltimore Sun Co. entered the sign business five years ago as a way to bring in additional revenue.

Although the stores began turning a profit in the past year, company officials said it was better to sell.

"We thought the stores had a lot of potential, but we really wanted to focus on our core business," said John Patinella, general manager of the newspaper company.

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Patinella said the sign stores were the only part of the business not associated with newspapers. The company also owns Patuxent Publishing, which owns 13 community newspapers, and Homestead Publishing, which owns three community newspapers. It acquired the Harford Business Ledger this year.

"We don't have any intention of selling our community newspapers or anything like that," Patinella said. "We're a media company, but newspapers are our core."

The Sun, like the newspaper industry nationwide, is grappling with long-term declines in circulation and a slow advertising climate. But Patinella said the sale of the sign stores was not a way to cut costs. Instead, it's a way to redirect resources away from "a subsidiary that we thought wouldn't grow as quickly as what we put into it."

Hooper and Shaffer said they expect to make no operational changes at the Fastsigns stores, which are in downtown Baltimore, Catonsville, Glen Burnie, White Marsh and Pikesville. The stores' 22 employees will remain.

Hooper joined Fastsigns in 1998 as a store manager and later became general manager of Signs of Distinction.

Shaffer spent 10 years in The Sun's circulation department before helping to start the company's new business development team in 1998. He helped create the Signs of Distinction subsidiary.

"It's an opportunity that I couldn't pass up," Shaffer said. "I launched the store five years ago, and I know the business. I had a great chance to work with a great partner and decided to give it a go."