Fortress Investment Group LLC's GateHouse Media Inc., which will be taking over management of the former Dow Jones Local Media Group publications, said that it plans to restructure its $1.2 billion debt load through a prepackaged chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. GateHouse, which operates a struggling chain of local newspapers and publications in smaller markets, has been working toward a restructuring for months. Fortress affiliate Newcastle Investment Corp., which owns about 52% of GateHouse's debt, earlier this week acquired Dow Jones Local Media Group from News Corp. The company said yesterday that it paid $87 million for Dow Jones business and tagged GateHouse to run the string of 33 local newspapers. The plans are to combine the Dow Jones Local Media string of publications with GateHouse's existing holdings into a new company, to be called New Media, Newcastle Chairman Wes Edens said. Concurrently with the bankruptcy, Newcastle will ask for permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission to spin out the combined and revamped GateHouse and Dow Jones Local Media Group business into the new company.
