GateHouse Media

GateHouse Media
Company type	Newspaper Publisher
Industry	Media & Periodicals
Defunct	2019
Headquarters	Fairport, New York, USA
Revenue	US$589 million (2007)
Operating income	-$183 million (2007)
Net income	-$231 million (2007)
Total assets	$1,875 million (2007)
Total equity	$454 million (2007)
Number of employees	7,212 (2007)
Website	GateHouse Media

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

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]

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]

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

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.