GateHouse Media Inc. NASDAQ Pink sheet GHSE, formerly NYSE: GHS, is a U.S. newspaper publisher, headquartered in Fairport, New York, that publishes 97 dailies in 20 states and 198 paid weeklies, in addition to free papers, shoppers and specialty and niche publications.
Operating until mid-2006 as Liberty Group Publishing, based in Downers Grove, Illinois, the company founded its national presence on several small dailies and weeklies from Canadian firm Hollinger International. Liberty doubled its size when, in May 2006, it announced it would acquire Community Newspaper Company of Massachusetts, the publisher of four daily and almost 100 weekly newspapers in the Boston area. At the same time, Liberty bought Community Newspaper competitor Enterprise News Media.1 By the end of the year, the company had also announced it would acquire Journal Register Company's properties in southeastern Massachusetts.2
After the purchase of Community Newspaper and Enterprise Newsmedia, Liberty changed its name to GateHouse Media and moved its headquarters to upstate New York. It also issued an IPO in October 2006. Company executives said GateHouse's focus on "hyper-local" journalism -- small newspapers covering small cities and towns with a depth that big newspapers and television cannot offer -- would enable it to buck downward trends in the newspaper industry.3
On October 23, 2007, GateHouse announced it was purchasing 14 daily newspapers and other publications from Morris Communications.[1] On August 28, 2008, GateHouse sold two of those papers, The Grand Island Independent and the York News-Times, both in Nebraska, to the Omaha World-Herald Co.[2]
The Company received notification from the NYSE on August 21, 2008, that the Company had fallen below the NYSE's continued listing standards for average global market capitalization over a consecutive 30 trading day period of not less than $75 million and $1.00 average closing price over a consecutive 30 trading day period and had submitted a business plan to the NYSE Regulation for coming back into compliance for continued listing. The Company has been in communication with the NYSE regarding the Company's non-compliance with continued listing standards but was unsuccessful in its efforts to avoid suspension and delisting.
