Journal Register Company Presents To Bear Stearns' Clients At Its New Suburban Philadelphia Production Facility

Business Wire, May 23, 2002

Business Editors

TRENTON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2002

Journal Register Company (NYSE:JRC) today presented to Bear Stearns' clients at Journal Register Offset, the Company's new suburban Philadelphia production facility. Journal Register Company management provided a tour of the facility and an update of its integration into the Company's Greater Philadelphia Cluster.

Journal Register Company Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Robert M. Jelenic emphasized the operational synergies derived from the new facility. "Our strategy is to create tight geographic clusters that offer synergistic efficiencies in production operations, newsgathering and advertising sales. The new Journal Register Offset facility has increased operational synergies in the Greater Philadelphia Cluster, enhancing the value of these publications."

Journal Register Offset commenced operations in December 2001 and is currently printing five daily and 14 non-daily publications, realizing significant cost savings and increased color advertising revenues. The Company anticipates adding 16 non-daily publications from its Montgomery Newspapers weekly group by the end of June and another eight non-daily publications from the recent News Gleaner Publications acquisition by the end of the third quarter of this year. Jelenic added, "We have received extremely positive feedback from both readers and advertisers regarding the enhanced quality of the publications printed in the new facility."

Journal Register Company Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jean B. Clifton said, "We are very pleased with the Journal Register Offset facility, which is on track to realize our projected, annualized cash savings of $1.3 million. This is a tribute to the talent and tireless efforts of the management team and the staff at the plant. The new facility is also a key driver of the increase we are experiencing in classified automotive advertising in the Greater Philadelphia Cluster, which was up, on a same-store basis, 18.1 percent in Period Four and 17.1 percent year-to-date through Period Four as compared to the respective prior year periods. On the same basis, the newspapers printed in the new plant reported an increase in year-over-year color advertising revenues of more than forty percent in Period Four."

Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, Jelenic said, "We are pleased with the improvement in advertising trends to date in 2002 and, based on our projections which reflect continued quarter-over-quarter improvement in advertising revenue trends, we remain comfortable with our analysts' current range of estimates, which is $0.28 to $0.32 per diluted share for the second quarter and $1.07 to $1.12 per diluted share for the full year."

Journal Register Company is a leading U.S. newspaper publishing company that owns 23 daily newspapers, including the New Haven Register, Connecticut's second largest daily and Sunday newspaper, and 224 non-daily publications. Journal Register Company currently operates 139 individual Web sites featuring the Company's daily newspapers and non-daily publications, which can be accessed at www.journalregister.com. All the Company's operations are strategically clustered in six geographic areas: Connecticut, Greater Philadelphia, Greater Cleveland, Central New England, and the Capital-Saratoga and Mid-Hudson regions of New York. The Company has an investment in PowerOne Media, Inc., a leading provider of online solutions for newspapers, hosting the largest online newspaper network in the U.S.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. These include, but are not limited to, the success of the Company's acquisition strategy, dispositions, the ability of the Company to achieve cost reductions and integrate acquisitions, competitive pressures and general or regional economic conditions and advertising trends. Additional risk factors are outlined in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.