ALJAZEERA: News Corp sold the 33 publications in its Dow Jones Local Media Group to an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, highlighting how the newspaper industry is quickly separating into groups that either own big, national publications or smaller, local outlets.
Daily newspaper franchises in the group, formerly Ottawa Newspapers, include the Cape Cod Times in Hyannis, Massachusetts, the Pocono Record in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and the Daily Tidings in Ashland, Oregon. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. GateHouse Media, another affiliate of Fortress that operates more than 400 community publications in the US, will manage the properties.
The deal is the first disposal since Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp split into two companies this summer, spinning off its publishing assets from its 21st Century Fox entertainment business. News Corp was said to be considering a sale of the community newspapers group in April after previously trying to dispose of the group in 2008… (more)
