Ottaway newspapers James H. Ottaway Sr. founded the company in November 1936, when he purchased the
Bulletin, a semi-weekly paper in
Endicott, New York, that he converted to a daily within a year. Ottaway added the
Oneonta Star in 1944, followed two years later by the
Pocono Record. The company was a seller more often than a buyer in the 2000s (decade), however, and several observers—including the
New York Post,
The Boston Globe and Ottaway's own
Cape Cod Times—speculated that News Corporation intended to sell all or part of the company in the near future.
Dow Jones Local Media Group Under Dow Jones' ownership, Ottaway sold several newspapers in recent years, however, most recently in December 2006, when the company dealt nearly half its daily newspapers to
Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI) for $287.9 million (including real estate). •
The Herald of
Sharon, Pennsylvania •
The Independent of
Ashland, Kentucky •
The Free Press of
Mankato, Minnesota •
The Joplin Globe of
Joplin, Missouri Also, Ottaway sold the three daily newspapers of Essex County Newspapers Inc. to
The Eagle-Tribune of
North Andover, Massachusetts, in 2002, for $70 million.
The Eagle-Tribune, along with the Essex papers listed below, was later purchased by CNHI. •
Daily News of Newburyport of
Newburyport, Massachusetts •
Gloucester Daily Times of
Gloucester, Massachusetts •
Salem Evening News of
Salem, Massachusetts Sale to Newcastle On September 4, 2013,
News Corp announced that it would sell the Dow Jones Local Media Group to Newcastle Investment Corp.—an affiliate of
Fortress Investment Group, for $87 million. The newspapers will be operated by
GateHouse Media, a newspaper group owned by Fortress. News Corp. CEO and former
Wall Street Journal editor
Robert James Thomson indicated that the newspapers were "not strategically consistent with the emerging portfolio" of the company. GateHouse in turn filed prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 27, 2013, to restructure its debt obligations in order to accommodate the acquisition. Newcastle combined Local Media Group with the post-bankruptcy GateHouse Media later in 2013 to form New Media Investment Group. ==Holdings==