GateHouse Media

GateHouse Media, Inc.
Public
Traded as NYSE: NEWM
Industry News media
Predecessor Liberty Group Publishing
Founded 1997 (1997)
Founder Kenneth L. Serota
Headquarters Perinton, New York[lower-alpha 1]
Area served
 United States
Key people
 Michael E. Reed, CEO
Wesley Edens, board chairman[2]
Products 87 daily newspapers
271 weekly newspapers
111 “shoppers”
over 260 locally-focused websites
seven yellow page directories
Revenue Decrease US$559 million (2010)[3]
Increase US$43 million (2010)[3]
Increase US$(26 million) (2010)[3]
Total assets Decrease US$546 million (2010)[3]
Total equity Decrease US$(792 million) (2010)[3]
Owner Fortress Investment Group LLC (39.6% equity) (2010)[3]
Number of employees
 Decrease 5,239 (2010)[3]
Website gatehousemedia.com

GateHouse Media Inc. (formerly Liberty Group Publishing), former symbol on OTC Markets Group's OTCQB tier GHSE, is a U.S. newspaper publisher, headquartered in the town of Perinton, New York,[lower-alpha 1] that publishes 97 dailies in 20 states and 198 paid weeklies, in addition to free papers, shoppers and specialty and niche publications.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 27, 2013.[4] It reemerged from the preplanned bankruptcy in November 2013. In the restructured plan Gatehouse stock was cancelled and a new holding company for the parent -- New Media Investment Group, Inc. was formed (NYSE: NEWM).[5]

History

Liberty Group Publishing

Owned by 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.[6]

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.

Gatehouse Media

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.[7]

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.[8] By the end of the year, the company had also announced it would acquire Journal Register Company's properties in southeastern Massachusetts.[9]

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.[10]

IPO

In October 2006, GateHouse had its IPO with Fortress maintaining 60 percent ownership.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] 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, GateHouse announced the launch of RadarFrog, an online portal that features both online and national coupons and deals. Shannon K. Dunnigan was appointed as the CEO of RadarFrog.d[14]

Bankruptcy

On September 4, 2013, News Corp announced that it would sell the Dow Jones Local Media Group, a group of 33 local newspapers, to Newcastle Investment Corp.—an affiliate of Fortress, for $87 million. The newspapers will be operated by GateHouse Media following the purchase. CEO Robert James Thomson indicated that the newspapers "were not strategically consistent with the emerging portfolio" of the company, which had been formed as a spin-off of News Corporation.[15]

On September 27, 2013, the company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. It listed assets of $433.7 million and debt of $1.3 billion. The preplanned bankruptcy centers on restructuring the Fortress News Corp deal. Fortress owns 52 percent of GateHouse debt. A Fortress unit FIF III Liberty Acquisitions LLC merged with Gatehouse in 2005. The case is GateHouse Media Inc., 13-bk-12503.[16][17]

The company emerged from bankruptcy on November 26, 2013. The terms involved the cancellation of shares of Gatehouse but those owners receiving warrants to buy shares in New Media Investment Group Inc., a new holding company.[5]

Holdings

Notes

  1. 1 2 While its mail is delivered from the Fairport, NY 14450 post office, GateHouse's headquarters lie some four miles south of the Village of Fairport.[1]

References

  1. ↑ "Town of Perinton Street Map" (PDF). http://www.perinton.org. Perinton, New York: Town of Perinton. 2007-12-17. Grid coordinates 8C. External link in |website= (help)
  2. ↑ "Wesley R. Edens". Forbes.com. Retrieved 12 April 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Gatehouse Media, Inc. (2011-03-01), FORM 10-K FOR THE YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2010, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, File 001-33091, film 11652426, retrieved 2011-03-04
  4. ↑ Pearson, Sophia; Kary, Tiffany (September 27, 2013). "GateHouse Files for Bankruptcy as Part of Fortress Plan". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 2013-12-01.
  5. 1 2 Staff reports (26 November 2013). "GateHouse Media officially done with bankruptcy". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  6. ↑ Culloton, Dan; 509 words. "Red ink pressing publisher; Liberty Group grew fast, but so did its debt — Crains — August 5, 2004". Highbeam.com. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
  7. ↑ U.S. "International Directory of Company Histories. Copyright © 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc". Answers.com. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
  8. ↑ The Patriot Ledger at SouthofBoston.com Archived April 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ http://www.heraldnews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17540128&BRD=1710&PAG=461&dept_id=99784&rfi=6
  10. ↑ Syre, Steven (October 24, 2006). "An unlikely IPO". The Boston Globe.
  11. ↑ GateHouse Media stock being delisted from NYSE - October 22, 2008 Archived October 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20071026002500/http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003662037. Archived from the original on October 26, 2007. Retrieved February 19, 2016. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ↑
  14. ↑ "RadarFrog.com Launch Press Release". Investors.gatehousemedia.com. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
  15. ↑ "News Corp. sells 33 papers to New York investors". New York Business Journal. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
  16. ↑ "GateHouse Files for Bankruptcy as Part of Fortress Plan". Bloomberg.
  17. ↑ "GateHouse Media, Inc.". pacermonitor.com. Retrieved 4 March 2015.

Further reading


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