GateHouse CEO: Purchases offer "compelling synergy"

GateHouse Media issued the following release concerning today's announcement that the company is buying 14 daily newspapers, including the Pittsburg Morning Sun, Independence Examiner, Hannibal Courier-Post and 11 other daily newspapers:

GateHouse Media, Inc. announced today that it has signed a definitive asset purchase agreement to acquire several daily and non-daily publications from Morris Publishing Group for a purchase price of $115 million. The transaction is expected to close before the end of November and is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. The publications to be acquired are located in South Dakota, Florida, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

"This is an excellent acquisition opportunity for GateHouse," said Mike Reed, Chief Executive Officer of GateHouse. "These are strong local media franchises in small markets, many of which are near existing GateHouse properties and offer compelling synergy opportunities. We are also enthusiastic about the acquisition from a financial standpoint as we expect these assets to generate an incremental $14 million of Adjusted EBITDA."