Dow Jones Mulling Sale Of Ottaway Chain

Posted Tuesday, November 27, 2007 12:00 am

By: E&P Staff Dow Jones & Co. said Tuesday it is "exploring strategic alternatives" for its Ottaway chain, including the sale of all the community newspapers.

Ottaway operates eight dailies and 15 weeklies in seven states.

Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. is taking over Dow Jones in a deal expected to close by the end of the year, said last summer that he expected to sell off the community papers "fairly quickly" upon completion of the transaction.

Bidders for the chain can expect to pay as much as $660 million, broker Larry Grimes said at the time.

Among the potential buyers are GateHouse Media Inc., which like Ottaway publishes several dailies in upstate New York, and Lee Enterprises, publisher of many community papers.

Ottaway's dailies include the Times Herald-Record, in Middletown, N.Y.; the Cape Cod Times in Hyannis, Mass.; the Inquirer and Mirror in Nantucket, Mass., the Standard-Times in New Bedford, Mass.; the Pocono Record in Stroudsburg, Pa.; The Record in Stockton, Calif.; The Portsmouth Herald in Portsmouth, N.H.; the Medford Mail Tribune in Medford, Ore.; and the Ashland Daily Tidings in Ashland, Ore.

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Dow Jones Mulling Sale Of Ottaway Chain

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