NEW YORK – New Media Investment Group Inc. on Friday announced the sale of DB Nevada Holdings Inc. and an agreement to acquire two local media assets in separate deals, including the business information division of Dolan LLC.
The company, whose subsidiary Gatehouse Media owns The Providence Journal, said it sold DB Nevada Holdings, publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and other publications, for $140 million to News + Media Capital Group LLC. That sale was completed on Dec. 10.
It also reached an agreement to purchase substantially all of the publishing operations of a local daily newspaper, which was not identified, and another agreement to buy Dolan’s business information division, which has 39 print and online publications and provides industry-specific news for the legal, financial, real estate and government affairs sectors in 17 markets across the country. Based in Minneapolis, Dolan publishes Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly and Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, as well as Finance & Commerce.
Terms of the two purchases were not disclosed.
New Media, which owns 125 daily publications across the country, said it anticipates that both Dolan and the other local daily newspaper acquisition will close by the end of the year or early next year.
The three transactions together will result in an increase of more than $90 million to New Media’s balance sheet, the company said.
“We are thrilled to announce these three transactions and believe they demonstrate our continued commitment and ability to generate substantial returns for our shareholders,” Michael Reed, New Media’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Although we are a net acquirer of local media businesses, we will opportunistically pursue transactions that are in the best interest of New Media’s shareholders.
To date, he said New Media has announced 12 acquisitions totaling more than $635 million.
Besides providing subscribers with content, Dolan develops organizes, and produces events centered on awards and education seminars. It has more than 46,000 paid subscribers.
“We are pleased to announce the agreement to acquire the Dolan assets and see a tremendous opportunity to leverage its publications and subscriber base across New Media’s footprint,” Reed said. “In addition to the valuable content Dolan provides to its readership base, we believe their subscribers, which are predominately service-oriented business owners, are the ideal customer for our fast-growing digital services business, Propel Marketing.”
