GateHouse Media Inc. Acquires Community Newspaper CompanyBack to News

NORTHBRROK, IL, JUNE 6, 2006 – Mike Reed, Chief Executive Officer of GateHouse Media, Inc, formerly operating as Liberty Group Publishing Inc. of Northbrook, Illinois, announced today that GateHouse has closed on its transaction to acquire Community Newspapers Co. chain of suburban newspapers, which is operated as a subsidiary of Herald Media Inc. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a newspaper merger-and-acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was a co-advisor to Herald Media in the transaction.

Community Newspapers Co. consists of 126 weeklies and dailies north and west of Boston, Massachusetts. Circulation of the dailies totals approximately 45,000, and the non-dailies 578,000. Community Newspaper Co, was acquired by Herald Media, Inc., publisher of the Boston Herald, in 2001.

Under the sale agreement, advertising cross-selling, cross-promotion and editorial content sharing between the Boston Herald and Community Newspapers Co. will continue. Patrick Purcell will continue to own and publish the Boston Herald.

Mike Reed, the CEO of GateHouse Media since January, said “The business model of CNC is exactly the same as GateHouse’s," Reed said, "and that is to be the premier provider of local news and information.”

GateHouse is a leading publisher of local newspapers and related publications that are the dominant source of local news and print advertising in their markets. GateHouse was acquired by New York-based private equity firm, Fortress Investment Group, in 2005. It owns and operates 274 publications located in 15 states that reach approximately 2.1 million people on a weekly basis. The majority of the company’s paid daily newspapers have been published for more than 100 years and are typically the only paid daily newspapers of general circulation in their respective non-metropolitan markets. GateHouse formerly had no presence in New England.

In a separate announcement, GateHouse announced it has closed on its transaction to acquire Enterprise NewsMedia, LLC, publishers of the Quincy (MA) Patriot Ledger, Brockton (MA) Enterprise and 11 non-dailies in the South Boston area. With the two acquisitions, GateHouse now reaches nearly 1 million households with its publications in the Greater Boston market.