Bloomberg: GateHouse, Gannett, Lee top prospects to buy Ottaway Newspapers

An article posted today by Bloomberg News Service, puts Gannett Co, owner of the Springfield News-Leader, Lee Enterprises, owners of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and GateHouse Media, owners of The Carthage Press and Neosho Daily News, as the most likely bidders for Ottaway Newspapers.
Speculation has increased since earlier this week when Rupert Murdoch said he would spin off Ottaway, which is Dow Jones' newspaper segment:

Gannett Co., Lee Enterprises Inc. and Gatehouse Media Inc. may be the most likely buyers for the 22 local newspapers News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch plans to sell after completing his purchase of Dow Jones & Co. later this year.

Potential bidders may pay as much as $660 million, according to Larry Grimes, who buys and sells newspapers for media investment bank W.B. Grimes & Co., and Edward Atorino, an industry analyst at Benchmark Co. in New York. Atorino said Hearst Corp. and Advance Publications Inc., both closely held, might also bid for the assets.

``The size and breadth of these properties would be tantalizing,'' said Grimes, who is based in Gaithersburg, Maryland. ``These are well run newspapers that are the No. 1 media buy in each of their markets.''

Not mentioned in the article was Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. (CNHI), the company that owns the Joplin Globe, which was once an Ottaway newspaper.