Journal Community Publishing Group Agrees to Sell Its Connecticut and Vermont Clusters to Hersam Acorn Community PublishingBack to News

MILWAUKEE, WI, JUNE 19, 2007 – Journal Community Publishing Group Inc. (JCPG), a Journal Communications Inc. company, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its publishing and printing assets in Connecticut and Vermont to Hersam Acorn Community Publishing. The parties anticipate closing the transactions as quickly as possible. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Under the agreement, Hersam Acorn Community Publishing LLC will acquire the assets of JCPG’s Connecticut and Vermont clusters – consisting of 11 community papers, two printing facilities (in Trumbull, CT and Bennington, VT) and five shopper products. The Connecticut operations do business under the names “Hometown Publications” and “Trumbull Printing.”

On June 13, JCPG announced it had agreed to sell its Louisiana-based publishing business to a Target Media Partners affiliate, and on June 19, the company announced it had agreed to sell its Ohio publishing and printing assets to Gannett Co. Inc. In aggregate, the sales price for the assets of the New England, Ohio and Louisiana clusters approximates $30 million, subject to certain working capital adjustments.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a newspaper merger-and-acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Journal Communications Inc. in the transactions.

“With the planned divestiture of our New England- and Ohio-based publishing and printing operations, as well as the recently announced pending sale of our Louisiana publishing business, Journal Community Publishing Group is now strategically positioned to turn its focus to deepening our media offerings in our vital Wisconsin and Florida markets,” said Elizabeth (Betsy) Brenner, president and chief operating officer of Journal Communications’ publishing group.

David Honan, vice president, general manager and chief financial officer of Journal Community Publishing Group, added, “Our Connecticut and Vermont employees have dedicated many years of service to our organization, and we thank them for their hard work and commitment to producing high-quality products for all of our customers.”

Hersam Acorn Community Publishing is a family-owned company publishing eight award-winning weekly newspapers in Fairfield County, Connecticut and Westchester County, New York.

Journal Communications Inc., founded in 1882 and headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is a diversified media company with operations in publishing, radio and television broadcasting, interactive media and printing services. The company publishes the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and 75 community newspapers and shoppers in eight states. It owns and operates 35 radio stations and 10 television stations in 12 states. Its interactive assets include more than 75 online enterprises associated with its daily and community newspapers, television and radio stations.