News Corp. Sheds Newspapers

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The Dow Jones Local Media Group ("DJLMG"), owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has unloaded several local newspapers to private equity manager Fortress Investment Group, LLC, GateHouse Media, Inc.'s majority owner, Bloomberg News reported today.

GateHouse Media will manage the acquired publications, which include the Cape Cod Times and The (New Bedford) Standard Times from TUOL's home turf, as well as the Portsmouth (N.H.) Herald and Ashland (Ore.) Daily Tidings. In all, DJLMG boasts 33 publications, including eight dailies. According to Bloomberg, Barrons, SmartMoney.com, AllThingsD., MarketWatch and The Wall St. Journal are the remaining properties of DJLMG following the transaction, financial terms of which were not revealed.

NH Papers: Don't Take Free Online Content for Granite

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Count The Concord Monitor, The Portsmouth Herald, The Nashua Telegraph and The Conway Daily Sun among Granite State newspapers that will institute metered payment systems for online news content before the year is out.

Access to breaking news will remain free and unrestricted, but online readers otherwise will have a ceiling on free page views monthly before being required to register on the Web site and pay for additional viewings. The Dow Jones-owned Seacoast Media Group, which publishes The Portsmouth Herald, is expected to unveil its metered payment program sometime this fall.

Full Disclosure:  New Hampshire newspapers are near and dear to the intrepid "TUOL" staff, which more years ago than will be admitted to, worked as a reporter at The N.H. Union-Leader. The Union-Leader, which does not publish all its stories online, is not listed among the papers going the metered payment route, opting to dip its toes in the 20th Century, before rushing into the 21st.