The president of Old Town Alexandria-based Connection Newspapers, which publishes community newspapers throughout Northern Virginia and Maryland, was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail and a fine on two counts of failing to pay the IRS nearly $1 million in taxes.

After the six months in jail, Peter Labovitz will be placed on supervised release for a year. Six months of that year will include home confinement.

The sentence also mandates that $647,510 must be paid within 60 days of sentencing along with a $50 court fee, according to the Alexandria branch of the U.S Attorney’s Office.

For the third and fourth quarters of 2007, Labovitz caused payroll taxes to be deducted and collected from employees’ wages but admitted at his plea hearing that he failed to pay those taxes to the IRS.

The tax loss resulting from his conduct during those quarters as well as some other quarters from 2002 through 2008 is approximately $944,000, according to the government.

The case is U.S. v. Peter Churchill Labovitz.