GateHouse Restructuring Debt, Managing Ex-Dow Jones Papers
GateHouse Media, which owns dozens of weekly papers and some dailies in eastern Massachusetts – including the MetroWest Daily News - is entering bankruptcy, attempting to restructure $1.2 billion in debt, as its principal debt-holder has purchased other Bay State papers, including the New Bedford Standard Times, Cape Cod Times, the Inquirer and Mirror of Nantucket and weeklies in the South Coast area, including the Fall River Spirit.
Newcastle Investment Corp., the majority owner of GateHouse debt, announced the purchase of the Dow Jones Local Media Group Wednesday for $87 million, including $33 million in debt. Newcastle said it plans to convert its debt into equity in the struggling newspaper chain, and that “restructuring would be subject to the bankruptcy court process.”
Newcastle also said GateHouse is an affiliate of Newcastle’s manager, Fortress Investment Group.
News Corp., publisher of the Wall Street Journal and the prior owner of the Dow Jones local papers, announced this week that the collection of dailies and weeklies would be “managed” by GateHouse. A few GateHouse papers compete with the former Dow Jones papers, especially on Cape Cod.
The GateHouse papers also include the former Community Newspaper Company chain, the Patriot Ledger, the Brockton Enterprise and the Herald News of Fall River. The local GateHouse papers generally market their websites as “WickedLocal” and publish weekly. (Disclosure: The writer of this item was previously employed by GateHouse.)
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