GateHouse Media

GateHouse Media, Inc.
Type	Public
Traded as	OTCQB: GHSE
Industry	News media
Predecessor(s)	Liberty Group Publishing
Founded	1997
Founder(s)	Kenneth L. Serota
Headquarters	Perinton, New York, U.S.
Area served	United States
Key people	Michael E. Reed, CEO
Products	87 daily newspapers; 271 weekly newspapers; 111 “shoppers”; over 260 locally-focused websites; seven yellow page directories
Revenue	US$ 559 million (2010)
Operating income	US$ 43 million (2010)
Net income	US$ (26 million) (2010)
Total assets	US$ 546 million (2010)
Total equity	US$ (792 million) (2010)
Owner(s)	Fortress Investment Group LLC (39.6% equity) (2010)
Employees	5,239 (2010)
Website	gatehousemedia.com

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GateHouse Media Inc. (formerly Liberty Group Publishing) OTCQB: GHSE is a U.S. newspaper publisher, headquartered in Perinton, New York, that publishes 97 dailies in 20 states and 198 paid weeklies, in addition to free papers, shoppers and specialty and niche publications.

[edit] History

Liberty Group Publishing was formed in 1998 when Kenneth L. Serota, a former Hollinger International attorney with backing from Leonard Green & Partners bought 160 community newspapers from Hollinger.^[2]

Headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois Liberty then expanded the network increasing the total newspapers to 330 by 2000. Faced with problems it would downsize to 270 by June 2005.

In June 2005 Fortress Investment Group bought Liberty for $527 million. Fortress expanded it to 75 dailies, 231 weeklies, 117 shoppers and 230 web sites.^[3]

It was renamed GateHouse and its headquarters moved to suburban Rochester, New York in April 2006.

Headquarters in Perinton, New York

In May 2006, it acquired Community Newspaper Company of Massachusetts, the publisher of four daily and almost 100 weekly newspapers in the Boston area. At the same time, Liberty bought Community Newspaper competitor Enterprise News Media.^[4] By the end of the year, the company had also announced it would acquire Journal Register Company's properties in southeastern Massachusetts.^[5]

Company executives said GateHouse's focus on "hyper-local" journalism—small newspapers covering small cities and towns with a depth that big newspapers and television cannot offer—would enable it to buck downward trends in the newspaper industry.^[6]

In October 2006 GateHouse had its IPO with Fortress maintaining 60 percent ownership^[7] Its stock dropped from $20 on initial trading in 2006 to 16 cents when it was delisted in October 2008.

On October 23, 2007, GateHouse announced it was purchasing 14 daily newspapers and other publications from Morris Communications.[1] On August 28, 2008, GateHouse sold two of those papers, The Grand Island Independent and the York News-Times, both in Nebraska, to the Omaha World-Herald Co.[2]

The Company received notification from the NYSE on August 21, 2008, that the Company had fallen below the NYSE's continued listing standards for average global market capitalization over a consecutive 30 trading day period of not less than $75 million and $1.00 average closing price over a consecutive 30 trading day period and had submitted a business plan to the NYSE Regulation for coming back into compliance for continued listing. The Company has been in communication with the NYSE regarding the Company's non-compliance with continued listing standards but was unsuccessful in its efforts to avoid suspension and delisting.

On March 29, 2010 the Company announced^[8] the launch of RadarFrog.com, an online portal that features both online and national coupons and deals. Shannon K. Dunnigan was appointed as the CEO of RadarFrog which will be run as a new division of the Company.