Heritage Partners Sells Enterprise NewsMedia To GateHouse Media

Business Wire, May 9, 2006

BOSTON -- GateHouse Media, Inc. (GateHouse), formerly operating as Liberty Group Publishing, Inc., and Heritage Partners, Inc. announced today that they have signed definitive agreements involving GateHouse's purchase of substantially all of the assets of Enterprise NewsMedia Holding, LLC, a leading Massachusetts-based community newspaper company that is a Heritage portfolio company.

GateHouse has also announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase substantially all of the assets of CP Media, Inc. another community newspaper company in Massachusetts. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

Enterprise NewsMedia Holding, Inc., the second largest community newspaper group in Massachusetts, publishes two suburban daily papers with long-established franchises and thirteen award-winning weekly newspapers all strategically clustered in the attractive South of Boston region. The combined circulation of its two daily newspapers, The Patriot Ledger and The Brockton Enterprise, is approximately 88,000, with week-end circulation of approximately 106,000.

CP Media, Inc., a subsidiary of Herald Media, Inc., is the largest community newspaper group in Massachusetts and publishes four daily, 92 non-daily and 25 shoppers and specialty publications serving 140 communities surrounding Boston.

"This combination points the way to a promising future for the Enterprise group of daily and weekly newspapers," said Frank Richardson, chairman of Enterprise NewsMedia and founder of the original company. "We believe GateHouse will do very well with this strategic combination, especially with the exceptional management group assembled by the CEO of Enterprise NewsMedia, Kirk Davis, and the excellent executive editor, Chazy Dowaliby."

Michael Gilligan, General Partner of Heritage Partners, the majority shareholder of Enterprise NewsMedia, commented: "This event represents an excellent opportunity for the Enterprise family of papers to continue pursuing the same set of strategic objectives we have been focusing on with them over the past several years. Under Kirk's leadership, this management team has done a very impressive job of organically enhancing the value of their franchise and have developed one of the most exciting on-line strategies of any group of suburban newspapers in the country."

"We have long felt that there would be tremendous potential through the combination of this cluster of papers and the group of community papers owned by Herald Media and are delighted that this team is being afforded that opportunity. We are proud to have been associated with the long-standing traditions of The Patriot Ledger, The Brockton Enterprise and the Memorial Press Group, their intense commitment to their respective communities and we appreciate the dedication and steadfast spirit of their employees."

Upon the closing of these acquisitions, GateHouse will be one of the largest community newspaper companies in the United States, publishing 77 daily newspapers, 271 non-daily newspapers and 136 shoppers and other publications, with operations in 17 states. GateHouse was acquired by an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC in June of 2005.

"I'm grateful to Heritage Partners, Frank Richardson, and our other shareholders for their support and for their recognition of this opportunity" said Kirk Davis, CEO of Enterprise since the summer of 2004. "Moreover, our management team and employees have done an extraordinary job repositioning Enterprise NewsMedia over the past couple of years. I look forward to working with them and with Gatehouse to accelerate what has already been remarkable progress."

Heritage Partners, Inc., with $1.4 billion in capital under management, is the leading private investment firm specializing in the acquisition and equity-based recapitalization of family-owned and founder-controlled businesses throughout North America through a unique equity recapitalization program called The Private IPO. Since 1987, the partners have assembled a diversified portfolio of 48 investments with aggregate revenues approaching $3.5 billion.