First Rupert Murdoch’s corporation split its print assets away from its broadcast and cable assets. Now it has a deal that will slim down the print company. On the way out the door is New Corporation’s Dow Jones Local Media operation.
The buyer, Newcastle Investment Corporation, is under the wings of Fortress Investment Group. The value of the deal is $87M. Another Fortress affiliate, GateHouse Media, will manage the properties.
An event has taken place already of which FCC-regulated broadcasters can only dream: The deal has already closed.
According to Wells Fargo, the following eight dailies will be headed to Fortress:
Times Herald-Record (Middletown, NY)
Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, MA)
The Record (Stockton, CA)
The Standard-Times (New Bedford, MA)
The Pocono Record (Stroudsburg, PA)
The Herald (Portsmouth, NH)
The Mail Tribune (Medford, OR)
The Daily Tidings (Ashland, OR
There are also 15 weeklies included in the sale.
Wells Fargo commented that the move fits in with News Corporation’s strategy of concentrating on core assets such as Wall Street Journal, while bringing in cash and trimming costs. It was announced that the DJLM properties were on the block earlier this summer. And attempts to sell them back in 2008 obviously bore no fruit.
