Minnesota Lawyer
New York-based New Media Investment Group said Friday it has an agreement to purchase the Business Information Division of Dolan LLC, the Minneapolis-based parent of Finance and Commerce Inc. and more than three dozen properties across the nation.
New Media, which owns GateHouse Media with 125 daily publications across 32 states, expects to close on the acquisition in the next several weeks, it said in a statement. New Media’s portfolio includes more than 575 community publications and 490 related websites.
“We see significant potential for both companies as we share experiences, products, and new revenue growth strategies,” Kirk Davis, CEO of GateHouse Media and COO of New Investment Media Group, said in a statement.
Finance and Commerce Inc. publishes the St. Paul Legal-Ledger/Capitol Report (politicsinminnesota.com), the daily Finance & Commerce business newspaper (finance-commerce.com) and the weekly Minnesota Lawyer (minnlawyer.com). Dolan LLC has 39 print and online publications offering news for the legal, financial, real estate and government affairs sectors in 17 markets. Dolan LLC’s properties have 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,” said Michael Reed, president and chief executive of New Media Investment Group. “In addition to the valuable content Dolan provides to its readership base, we believe their subscribers, which are predominantly service oriented business owners, are the ideal customer for our fast-growing digital services business, Propel Marketing.”
Finance and Commerce Publisher Michael Rifanburg said he is “extremely pleased” with the pending acquisition. “The strength of Finance and Commerce Inc.’s news products and the vast resources of GateHouse Media will create more and better offerings for our readers and advertisers,” he said.
