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December 1, 2006

Deal reached to sell Fall River, Taunton newspapers

The Journal Register Co. of Pennsylvania announced today it has struck a deal to sell its seven Massachusetts publications, including The Herald News of Fall River and the Taunton Daily Gazette, to GateHouse Media Inc. of New York for $70 million.

The deal does not include its 19 Rhode Island publications, which it also put up for sale in August. Among Journal Register's Rhode Island newspapers still on the auction block are The Call of Woonsocket, The Times of Pawtucket, Kent County Daily Times of West Warwick and the Warwick Daily Times.

"The Company is continuing its review of the potential sale of its remaining properties in its New England Cluster located in Rhode Island," the Journal Register said in a statement announcing the sale of its Massachusetts holdings.

GateHouse is an emerging newspaper company that has grown through a series of acquisitions in the last couple years. It already owns a number of Massachusetts newspapers, incuding dailies in Quincy, Brockton and Framingham. The company recently went public in an intial public offering with the stated intent of using the money raised to fund more newspaper acquisitions.

"The Fall River and Taunton assets fit extremely well with our existing base of Massachusetts-area publications and are the premiere local media franchises in their respective markets," Michael E. Reed, CEO of GateHouse Media said in a statement. "In addition, due to their proximity to our existing operations, we will be able to benefit from the cost savings and revenue generation opportunities that are inherent in being part of a cluster."

Seven Massachusetts newspapers are involved in the deal: the two dailies, three weeklies and two shopper publications.

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