Item 1.Business

General Overview

New Media Investment Group Inc. (“New Media,” “Company,” “Successor,” “us,” or “we”) is a company that owns, operates and invests in high-quality local media assets. We have a particular focus on owning and acquiring strong local media assets in small to mid-size markets. With our collection of assets, we focus on two large business categories: consumers and small to medium-sized businesses (“SMBs”).

Our portfolio of media assets today spans across 569 markets and 38 states. Our products include 678 community print publications, 569 websites and two yellow page directories. As of December 31, 2017 , we reach over 22 million people per week and serve over 215,000 business customers.

Our business strategy is to be the preeminent provider of local news, information, advertising, and digital and business services in the markets we operate in. We aim to grow our business organically through both our consumer and SMB strategies. We also plan to continue to pursue strategic acquisitions of high-quality local media and digital marketing assets at attractive valuation levels. Finally, we intend to distribute a portion of our free cash flow generated from operations or other sources as a dividend to stockholders through a quarterly dividend, subject to satisfactory financial performance, approval by our board of directors (the “Board of Directors” or “Board”) and dividend restrictions in the New Media Credit Agreement (as defined below). The Board of Directors’ determinations regarding dividends will depend on a variety of factors, including the Company’s U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) net income, free cash flow generated from operations or other sources, liquidity position and potential alternative uses of cash, such as acquisitions, as well as economic conditions and expected future financial results.

We believe that our focus on owning and operating leading local-content-oriented media properties in small to mid-size markets puts us in a position to better execute on our strategy. We believe that being the leading provider of local news and information in the markets in which we operate, and distributing that content across multiple print and digital platforms, gives us an opportunity to grow our audiences and reach. Further, we believe our strong local media brands and our market presence gives us the opportunity to expand our advertising and lead generation products with local business customers.

For our SMB category, we focus on leveraging our strong local media brands, our in-market sales force and our high consumer penetration rates with a variety of technology oriented products and services that solve acute pain points for SMBs. Central to this business strategy is our wholly-owned subsidiary UpCurve, Inc. ("UpCurve"). UpCurve provides two broad categories of services: ThriveHive, previously known as Propel Marketing, which provides marketing services for every SMB regardless of size, and UpCurve Cloud which offers best-in-breed cloud-based products with expert migration, integration, and support. ThriveHive is designed to offer a complete set of turn-key digital marketing and business services to SMBs that provide transparent results to the business owners. In 2016, we acquired a turn-key proprietary software that enables SMB owners to run their own digital and contact marketing campaigns.

We launched the UpCurve products in 2012 and have seen rapid growth since then. We believe UpCurve, combined with our strong local brands and in-market sales force, is positioned to continue to be a key component to our overall organic growth strategy. The opportunity UpCurve aims to seize upon is as follows:

There were approximately 29.6 million SMBs in the U.S. in 2014 according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Of these, approximately 29.0 million had 20 employees or less.

Many of the owners and managers of these SMBs do not have the resources or expertise to navigate the fast evolving digital marketing and cloud based service sectors, but are increasingly aware of the need to embrace the digital disruption to their business model.

We believe our local media properties and local sales infrastructure are uniquely positioned to sell these digital marketing and business services to local business owners and give us distinct advantages, including:

Our core products include:

In addition to our core products, we also opportunistically produce niche publications that address specific local market interests such as recreation, sports, healthcare and real estate.

GateHouse Live, our event business, was started in late 2015 to leverage our local brands to create world-class events in the markets we serve.  GateHouse Live now produces over 250 annual events with a collective attendance over 300,000.  Among our core event offerings are a variety of themed expos focused on target audiences, including men, women, seniors and young families.  Other signature event series produced across many of our markets include one of the nation's largest high school sports recognition events and the official community's choice awards for dozens of markets across the country.  GateHouse Live also offers white label event services for retailers and other media companies.

Our print and online products focus on the local community from a content, advertising, and digital marketing perspective. As a result of our focus on small and midsize markets, we are usually the primary, and sometimes, the sole provider of comprehensive local market news and information in the communities we serve. Our content is primarily devoted to topics that we believe are highly relevant and of interest to our audience such as local news and politics, community and regional events, youth sports, opinion and editorial pages, local schools, obituaries, weddings and police reports.

More than 85% of our daily newspapers have been published for more than 100 years and 99% have been published for more than 50 years. We believe that the longevity of our publications demonstrates the value and relevance of the local information that we provide and has created a strong foundation of reader loyalty and a highly-recognized media brand name in each community we serve. As a result of these factors, we believe that our publications have high local audience penetration rates in our markets, thereby providing advertisers with strong local market reach.

We believe the large number of publications we have, our focus on smaller markets, and our geographic diversity also provide the following benefits to our strategy:

The revenues derived from our SMB category come from a variety of print and digital marketing and business service products we offer through UpCurve, and commercial printing services. Our consumer revenue category comes primarily from subscription income as consumers pay for our deep, rich local content, both in print and online, however primarily print today.

Our operating costs consist primarily of labor, newsprint, and delivery costs. Our selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of labor costs. Compensation represents just under 50% of our expenses. Over the last few years, we have worked to drive efficiencies and centralization of work throughout our Company. Additionally, we have taken steps to cluster our operations, thereby increasing the usage of facilities and equipment while increasing the productivity of our labor force. We expect to continue to employ these steps as part of our business strategy.

New Media was formed as a Delaware corporation on June 18, 2013. New Media had no operations until November 26, 2013, when it assumed control of GateHouse Media, Inc. ("GateHouse" or "Predecessor") and Local Media Group Holdings LLC. GateHouse was determined to be the predecessor to New Media, as the operations of GateHouse comprised substantially all of the business operations of the combined companies. Pursuant to a restructuring, Newcastle Investment Corp. (“Newcastle”) owned approximately 84.6% of New Media until February 13, 2014, upon which date Newcastle distributed the shares that it held in New Media to its shareholders on a pro rata basis. New Media is externally managed and advised by an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC (“Fortress”).

Management Agreement

On November 26, 2013, New Media entered into a management agreement (the "Management Agreement") with FIG LLC (the "Manager") pursuant to which the Manager manages the operations of New Media. The annual management fee is 1.50% of New Media’s Total Equity (as defined in the Management Agreement), and the Manager is eligible to receive incentive compensation. On December 27, 2017, SoftBank Group Corp. (“SoftBank”) announced that it completed its previously announced acquisition of Fortress (the “SoftBank Merger”). Following the SoftBank Merger, Fortress will operate within SoftBank as an independent business headquartered in New York. Fortress’s senior investment professionals are expected to remain in place, including those individuals who perform services for us.

Acquisitions

On January 9, 2015, we completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Halifax Media Group for an aggregate purchase price of $285.4 million, including working capital and net of assumed debt. The acquisition included 24 daily publications, thirteen weekly publications, and five shoppers serving areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and South Carolina with a daily circulation of approximately 635,000 and 752,000 on Sunday.

On March 18, 2015, we completed the acquisition of the assets of Stephens Media, LLC (“Stephens Media”) for an aggregate purchase price of $110.8 million, including working capital. The acquisition included nine daily newspapers, 35 weekly publications and fifteen shoppers serving communities throughout the United States with a combined average daily circulation of approximately 221,000 and 244,000 on Sunday.

On June 15, 2015 and September 23, 2015, we acquired substantially all the assets, properties and business of publishing/operating certain newspapers for an aggregate purchase price of $52.0 million, including working capital. The acquisitions included two daily newspapers, 28 weekly publications, and two shoppers serving Central Ohio and Southern Michigan.

During 2016, we acquired substantially all the assets and assumed substantially all of the liabilities of certain businesses, which included 68 business publications, seven daily newspapers, seven weekly publications, eleven shoppers, and digital platforms for an aggregate purchase price of $135.9 million, including working capital.

During 2017, we acquired substantially all the assets, properties, and business of certain publications/businesses, which included four business publications, 22 daily newspapers, 34 weekly publications, 24 shoppers, two customer relationship management solutions providers, a social media app and an event production business for an aggregate purchase price of $165.1 million, including estimated working capital.

Long-Lived Asset Impairment

As part of the ongoing cost reduction programs, the Company is consolidating print facilities, and during the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company ceased printing operations at 15 facilities.  As a result, the Company recognized an impairment charge related to retired equipment of $ 7.1 million and accelerated depreciation of $ 2.4 million over the revised useful life of the equipment during the year ended December 31, 2017.

Dispositions

On December 10, 2015, we completed the sale of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and related publications (initially acquired in the Stephens Media acquisition), which are located in Las Vegas, Nevada for an aggregate sale price of $140.0 million plus working capital adjustment of $1.0 million. As a result, a gain of $57.0 million is included in loss (gain) on sale or disposal of assets on the consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive income (loss) during the year ended December 27, 2015.

On June 2, 2017, we completed the sale of the  Mail Tribune,  located in Medford, Oregon, for approximately $14.7 million, including working capital.  As a result, a pre-tax gain of approximately $5.4 million, net of selling expenses, is

included in (gain) loss on sale or disposal of assets on the consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive (loss) income.

Subsequent Events

Dividends

On February 28, 2018 , we announced a fourth quarter 2017 cash dividend of $0.37 per share of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, of New Media ("New Media Common Stock" or our "Common Stock"). The dividend will be paid on March 22, 2018 , to shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 14, 2018 .

Debt

On February 16, 2018, the New Media Credit Agreement was amended to, among other things, provide for (i) additional dollar-denominated term loans in an aggregate principal amount of $50.0 million on the same terms as the outstanding term loans that will mature on July 14, 2022 (the new and outstanding term loans, together, the “Term Loans”) and (ii) a 1.00% prepayment premium for any prepayments of the Term Loans made in connection with certain repricing transactions effected within six months of the date of the amendment.

Industry Overview

We operate in what is sometimes referred to as the “hyper-local” or community news market within the media industry. Media companies that serve this segment provide highly-focused local content and advertising that is generally unique to each market they serve and is not readily obtainable from other sources. Local publications include community newspapers, websites, shoppers, traders, real estate guides, special interest magazines and directories. Due to the unique local nature of their content and audience, community publications compete for advertising customers with other forms of traditional media, including direct mail, directories, radio, television, and outdoor advertising. They also compete with new local and national digital and social media businesses for advertising and digital and business services customers. We believe that local print and online publications in smaller markets are the most effective medium for local retail advertising, which emphasizes the price of goods in an effort to move inventory on a regular basis, in contrast to radio, broadcast and cable, television, and the internet, which are generally used for image or branding advertising. In addition, we believe local print and online publications generally have the highest local audience penetration rates, which allows local advertisers to get their message to a large portion of the local audience. Finally, national digital competitors tend to have no local in-market sales presence which we believe gives the local community publications an advantage when selling these types of products and services.

Locally-focused media in small and midsize communities is distinct from national and urban media delivered through outlets such as television, radio, metropolitan and national newspapers and the internet. Larger media outlets tend to offer broad based information to a geographically-scattered audience, which tends to be more of a commodity. In contrast, locally-focused media delivers a highly-focused product that is often the only source of local news and information in the market it serves. Our segment of the media industry is also characterized by high barriers to entry, both economic and social. Small and midsize communities can generally only sustain one newspaper. Moreover, the brand value associated with long-term reader and advertiser loyalty and the high start-up costs associated with developing and distributing content and selling advertisements, help to limit competition.

We also believe there is a growing need among small to mid-size businesses to be able to generate leads and interact with consumers across all the digital platforms, which takes many forms including websites, mobile sites, tablets and social media. These local business owners and managers lack the time, expertise and resources to capitalize on the potential of these consumer-reaching channels. National competitors in this category do not generally have a local in-market presence. Newly-formed competitors lack a known and credible brand name in addition to generally not having a local in-market presence. We believe this represents a substantial opportunity for our local media business.

Advertising Market

The primary sources of advertising revenue for local publications are small businesses, corporations, government agencies and individuals that reside in the market that a publication serves. By combining paid circulation publications with total market coverage (“TMC”) publications, such as shoppers and other specialty publications (tailored to the specific attributes of a local community), local publications are able to reach nearly 100% of the households in a distribution area. As macroeconomic conditions in advertising change, due to increasing internet and mobile usage and the wide array of available information sources, we have seen advertisers shift their focus to incorporate a digital advertising and services component into their overall local marketing strategy. To that end, in addition to printed products, the majority of our local publications have an online presence that further leverages the local brand, ensures higher penetration into the market, and provides a digital

alternative for local advertisers to reach consumers. We also have strong digital marketing and business services offered through ThriveHive and UpCurve Cloud.

Digital Media

The time spent online and on mobile devices each day by media consumers continues to grow and newspaper websites offer a wide variety of content providing comprehensive, in-depth and up-to-the-minute coverage of news and current events. The ability to generate, publish and archive more news and information than most other sources has allowed newspapers to produce some of the most visited sites on the internet.

We believe that our local publications are well positioned to capitalize on their existing market presence and grow their total audience base by publishing proprietary local content digitally: via the internet and mobile applications. Local digital media include traditional classifieds, directories of business information, local advertising, databases, audience-contributed content and mobile applications. We believe this additional community-specific content will further extend and expand both the reach and the brand of our publications with readers and advertisers. We believe that building a strong local digital business extends the core audience of a local publication.

The opportunity created by the digital extension of the core audience makes local digital advertising an attractive complement for existing print advertisers, while opening up opportunities to attract new local advertisers that have not previously advertised with local publications. In addition, we believe that national advertisers have an interest in reaching buyers on a hyper-local level and, although they historically have not been significant advertisers in community publications, we believe that digital media offers them a powerful medium to reach local audiences. This opportunity is further enhanced by our behavioral-targeting products, which allow advertisers to reach specific demographics of our audience and follow that audience across multiple websites, delivering advertisements across the platforms. Further, digital marketing services businesses are poised to benefit from the rise in internet marketing spend, which grew 22% between 2015 and 2016, and 330% between 2006 and 2016, according to the 2016 IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report issued in April 2017.

We believe that a strong digital business will enhance our revenues. In addition, we believe that we have the expertise and sales resources to help other businesses maximize their digital opportunities. UpCurve provides two broad categories of services: ThiveHive which is designed to help SMBs utilize the digital space to generate leads, interact with consumers and grow their businesses, and UpCurve Cloud which offers best-in-breed cloud-based products with expert migration, integration, and support. UpCurve’s digital and business services revenue derived from advertising, circulation, and other revenue has grown since the launch of ThriveHive in 2012. New Media’s digital and business services revenue was $143.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 , a 15.7% growth as compared with the same period in 2016 , which had digital and business services revenue of $123.9 million. Of this, $71.3 million, or 49.7% of digital revenue for the year ended December 31, 2017 was attributable to UpCurve. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business—We have invested in UpCurve, but such investments may not be successful, which could adversely affect our results of operations.”

We anticipate that the digital marketing and business services sector will continue to grow as SMBs move from print to digital marketing in connection with consumers spending more time online. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, in 2014 there were approximately 29.6 million SMBs in the US; 29.0 million of the SMBs had 20 employees or less, and SMBs are expected to spend $53.4 billion on digital marketing in 2018 (according to the U.S. Local Advertising Forecast 2018 by BIA/Kelsey). Owners of SMBs often lack the resources and expertise to navigate the digital marketing and business services sector. According to Clutch’s 2017 Small Business Survey, 29% of SMBs do not have a website, and 17% of SMBs with websites do not have mobile compatibility. ThriveHive offers SMBs digital and business services, including website design, search engine optimization, mobile apps, social media, retargeting and other advertising services. We believe that ThriveHive is well positioned to assist SMBs in the digital space and expect ThriveHive to contribute meaningfully to future revenue growth. UpCurve and ThriveHive are also able to leverage our local media properties and local sales infrastructure to give us distinct advantages, including:

Circulation

Overall daily newspaper print circulation, including national and urban newspapers, has been declining over the past several years. Small and midsize local market newspapers have generally had smaller declines and more stability in their paid

print circulation volumes due to the relevant and unique hyper-local news they produce combined with less competition than larger markets. In addition, we believe this unique and valuable hyper-local content along with the multiple delivery platforms that are now available will allow smaller market newspapers to continue to raise prices, leading to stable circulation revenues. Data and technology now available to newspaper companies allow them to target pricing more at the household level rather than purely by market. This will lead to more effective pricing strategies and enhance stability for circulation revenues.

Our Strengths

High Quality Assets with Leading Local Businesses . Our publications benefit from a long history in the communities we serve as one of the leading, and often sole, providers of comprehensive local content. More than 85% of our daily newspapers have been published for more than 100 years, and 99% have been published for more than 50 years. This has resulted in brand recognition for our publications, reader loyalty and high local audience penetration rates, which are highly valued by local advertisers. We continue to build on long-standing relationships with local advertisers and our in-depth knowledge of the consumers in our local markets. We believe our local news content is unique and highly valued by consumers who live in our markets, and there are limited, and in some cases no competing sources of local content for our target customers.

Large Locally Focused Sales Force . We have large and well known “in-market” local sales forces in the markets we serve, consisting of over 1,330 sales representatives, including 45 dedicated to UpCurve and seven third-party sales affiliations. Our sales forces are generally among the largest locally-oriented media sales forces in their respective communities. We have long-standing relationships with many local businesses and have the ability to be face to face with most local businesses due to these unique characteristics we enjoy. We believe our strong brands combined with our “in-market” presence give us a distinct advantage in selling and growing in the digital services sector given the complex nature of these products. We also believe that these qualities provide leverage for our sales force to grow additional future revenue streams in our markets, particularly in the digital sector.

Ability to Acquire and Integrate New Assets . We have created a national platform for consolidating local media businesses and have demonstrated an ability to successfully identify, acquire and integrate local media asset acquisitions. Together with our predecessor, we have acquired over $2.5 billion of assets since 2006, including traditional newspaper, business publication, business services and directory businesses. We have a scalable infrastructure and platform to leverage for future acquisitions.

Scale Yields Operating Profit Margins and Allows Us to Realize Operating Synergies . We believe we can generate higher operating profit margins than our publications could achieve on a stand-alone basis by leveraging our operations and implementing revenue initiatives, especially digital and business services initiatives, across a broader local footprint in a geographic cluster and by centralizing certain back-office production, accounting, administrative and corporate operations. We also benefit from economies of scale in the purchase of insurance, newsprint and other large strategic supplies and equipment. Finally, we have the ability to further leverage our centralized services and buying power to reduce operating costs when making future strategic accretive acquisitions.

Local Business Profile Generates Significant Cash Flow . Our local business profile allows us to generate significant recurring cash flow due to our diversified revenue base and high operating profit margins and maintaining our low capital expenditure and working capital requirements. As of December 31, 2017 , our debt structure consists of the New Media Credit Agreement and Advantage Credit Agreements (as defined below). We believe that we have the ability to generate significant free cash flow that has the potential to lead to stockholder value creation through our investments in organic growth, investments in accretive acquisitions and the return of cash to stockholders in the form of dividends, subject to satisfactory financial performance, approval by our Board of Directors and dividend restrictions in the New Media Credit Agreement. We further believe the strong cash flows generated and available to be invested will lead to consistent future dividend growth.

Experienced Management Team . Our senior management team is made up of executives who have an average of over 25 years of experience in the media industry, including strong traditional and digital media expertise. Our management team has broad industry experience with regard to both growing new digital and business services lines and identifying and integrating strategic acquisitions. Our management team also has key strengths in managing geographically dispersed teams, including the sales force, and identifying and centralizing duplicate functions across businesses leading to reduced core infrastructure costs.

Our Strategy

We intend to create stockholder value through a variety of factors including organic growth driven by our consumer and SMB strategies, pursuing attractive strategic acquisitions of high-quality local media assets, and through the distribution of a portion of our free cash flow generated from operations and other sources as a dividend, subject to satisfactory financial

performance, approval by our Board of Directors and dividend restrictions in the New Media Credit Agreement. However, there is no guarantee that we will be able to accomplish any of these strategic initiatives.

A key component of our strategy is to acquire and operate traditional local media businesses and transform them from print-centric operations to dynamic multi-media operations through our existing online advertising, digital marketing and business services. We will also leverage our existing platform to operate these businesses more efficiently. We believe all of these initiatives will lead to revenue and cash flow growth for New Media. We intend to distribute a portion of our free cash flow generated from operations and other sources as a dividend to stockholders, through a quarterly dividend, subject to satisfactory financial performance, approval by our Board of Directors and dividend restrictions in the New Media Credit Agreement. The Board of Directors’ determinations regarding dividends will depend on a variety of factors, including the Company’s GAAP net income, free cash flow generated from operations or other sources, liquidity position and potential alternative uses of cash, such as acquisitions, as well as economic conditions and expected future financial results. The key elements of our strategy include:

Maintain Our Leading Position in the Delivery of Proprietary Local Content in Our Communities . We seek to maintain our position as a leading provider of unique local content in the markets we serve and to leverage this position to strengthen our relationships with both readers and local businesses, thereby increasing penetration rates and market share. A critical aspect of this approach is to continue to provide local content that is not readily obtainable elsewhere and to be able to deliver that content to our customers across multiple print and digital platforms.

Grow Our Digital Marketing and Business Services. We plan to continue to scale and expand our digital marketing and business services platform, UpCurve. We believe UpCurve will allow us to sell digital marketing and business services to SMBs both in and outside of existing New Media markets. The SMB demand for digital and business service solutions is great and represents a rapidly expanding opportunity. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, in 2014 there were approximately 29.6 million SMBs in the U.S. and, according to a U.S. Local Advertising Forecast 2018 by BIA/Kelsey, digital revenues are expected to grow to $53.4 billion in 2018. Owners of SMBs often lack the resources and expertise to navigate the digital marketing services sector, with 29% of SMBs not having a website, and 17% of SMBs with websites do not have a mobile-friendly website according to Clutch’s 2017 Small Business Survey. We believe local SMBs will turn to our trusted local media brands to help them navigate through developing their digital marketing presence and business strategy. We believe our local media properties and local sales infrastructure gives us a distinct advantage to being the leading local provider of digital marketing and business services.

Pursue Strategic Accretive Acquisitions . We intend to capitalize on the highly fragmented and distressed local print industries which have greatly reduced valuation levels. We continue to expect to focus our investments primarily in the local newspaper sector in small to mid-size markets. We believe we have a strong operational platform as well as scalable digital marketing and business services. This platform, along with our deep industry specific knowledge and our experienced management team, can be leveraged to reduce costs, stabilize the core business and grow digital revenues at acquired properties. The size and fragmentation of the addressable print media market place in the United States, the greatly reduced valuation levels that exist in these industries, and our deep experience make this an attractive place for our initial consolidation focus and capital allocation. Over the longer term we also believe there may be opportunity to diversify and acquire these types of assets internationally, as well as other traditional local media assets such as broadcast TV, out of home advertising (billboards) and radio, in the United States and internationally. We also believe there may be opportunities to acquire other strong businesses that have strong local brands and local sales infrastructure or digital product companies, both of which could quickly scale our digital marketing and business services platform.

Stabilize Our Core Business Operations. We have four primary drivers in our strategic plans to stabilize our core business operations, including: (i) identifying permanent structural expense reductions in our traditional business cost infrastructure and re-deploying a portion of those costs toward future growth opportunities, primarily on the digital side of our business; (ii) accelerating the growth of both our digital audiences and revenues through improvements to current products, new product development, training, opportunistic changes in hiring to create an employee base with a more diversified skill set and sharing of best practices; (iii) accelerating our consumer revenue growth through subscription pricing increases, pay meters for digital content and growth in our overall subscriber base; and (iv) stabilizing our core print advertising revenues through improvements to pricing, packaging of products for customers that will produce the best results for them, and more technology and training for sales management and sales representatives.

New Media intends to focus its business strategy on building its digital marketing and business services and growing its online advertising business. With its improved capital structure and digital focus, combined with its strengths and strategy and dividend strategy, we believe that New Media will be able to grow stockholder value. However, there can be no assurance of this. See “Risk Factors” under Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

For more information about New Media’s risks and challenges, see “Risk Factors” under Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Products

Our traditional media product mix consists of four publication types: (i) daily newspapers, (ii) weekly newspapers, (iii) shoppers and (iv) niche and business publications. Most of these publications have a digital presence as discussed in the following table. Some of the key characteristics of each of these types of publications are also summarized in the table below:

 

Overview of Operations

Our traditional media products operate in four publication groups: Eastern US Publishing, Central US Publishing, Western US Publishing and BridgeTower. We also operate over 569 related websites. The following circulation statistics are estimated by our management as of December 31, 2017 .

The following table sets forth information regarding our publications:

Eastern US Publishing . Eastern US Publishing operates in five publication group clusters: in the North East, the (1) Patriot Publishing Group, (2) Providence Group, (3)  Mid-Atlantic Publishing Group, and in the South East, the (4) South Atlantic Publishing Group and (5) Coastal Publishing Group.

Patriot Publishing Group. This cluster publishes a plethora of award-winning print and digital publications in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. The group is comprised of 11 daily newspapers, 113 weekly newspapers, five shoppers, and over 178 local and regional websites as well as direct mail, distribution and commercial printing operations. Patriot Publishing Group operates in five key regions - New England Publishing Group, Cape Cod Media Group, SouthCoast Media Group, Seacoast Media Group and Worcester, Massachusetts.

New England Publishing Group includes six daily newspapers and a large concentration of weekly newspapers, serving 108 communities in markets across eastern Massachusetts. The three largest daily newspapers are: The Patriot Ledger (founded in 1837 with circulation of 16,481), the Enterprise (founded in 1880 with circulation of 9,549) and the MetroWest Daily News (founded in 1897 with circulation of 8,622). The New England Publishing Group has 165 websites, with more than 4.1 million combined monthly unique visitors.

Many of the towns within the New England Publishing Group footprint were founded in the 1600s, and the daily and weekly newspapers in the region have long been institutions within these communities. The publications are within the Boston designated market area (“DMA”), which is the eighth largest market in the United States with 2.6 million households and 6.6 million people, and ranks first nationally in concentration of colleges and universities. Massachusetts has more than 1.3 million households in the region earning greater than $75,000, and a substantial homeownership rate.

The Cape Cod Media Group’s flagship publication is the Cape Cod Times . The Cape Cod Times , with a daily circulation of 23,873 is the premier daily and Sunday local paper on Cape Cod. The Barnstable Patriot , the group’s one paid weekly newspaper, has a circulation of 1,569. The Cape Cod Times also has a successful website, capecodtimes.com , with over 3.4 million monthly page views and 780,521 monthly unique visitors.

The Southcoast Media Group publishes one paid daily newspaper, four paid weekly newspapers and two shoppers. The group’s daily newspaper, The Standard-Times , has a daily circulation of 12,703 and is the premier daily and Sunday local paper in the New Bedford, MA area. The paid weeklies, the Spectator , the Chronicle , the Middleboro Gazette and the Advocate , have weekly circulations of 2,350, 7,994, 2,220 and 370, respectively.

The Seacoast Media Group publishes two paid daily and seven weekly newspapers. The flagship publication of the Seacoast Media Group is the Portsmouth Herald . The Portsmouth Herald , with a daily circulation of 7,664, is the premier daily and Sunday local paper in coastal New Hampshire. The Hampton Union and the Exeter News-Letter are weeklies with circulations of 1,564 and 1,791, respectively. The York County Coast Star and the York Weekly in southern Maine have weekly circulations of 2,715 and 1,369, respectively. In addition, the group publishes Foster’s Daily Democrat with circulation of 6,174. Seacoast Sunday is a regional Sunday newspaper for the entire market with circulation of 16,161 and is the second largest Sunday paper in New Hampshire. EDGERadio , a new streaming local news and entertainment radio station was launched in June 2016 at Portsmouth Herald .

In Worcester, Massachusetts, the Telegram & Gazette has been the premier daily newspaper in Central Massachusetts since 1866. The Telegram & Gazette , with daily circulation of 39,355 and its website , telegram.com , covers all of Worcester county, as well as surrounding areas including editorial coverage and distribution in over 60 towns which represents over 20% of the towns in the state of Massachusetts and receives monthly page views of over 6.5 million. Coverage is in the primary market of Worcester County with secondary focus in Middlesex and Hampden counties. In addition, The Item , is older than

Clinton, Massachusetts, the town it calls home. The Item , covering Clinton, Lancaster, Sterling, Bolton, Berlin and Boylston, was founded in July 1893, more than 120 years ago.

Providence Group. This cluster includes the Providence Journal and the Newport Media Group in Rhode Island, the Nantucket Island Media Group, and Norwich, Connecticut.

In Providence, Rhode Island, the Pulitzer Prize winning publication The Providence Journal , publishes one paid daily newspaper and one shopper. The Providence Journal is the preeminent newspaper in the state of Rhode Island and the oldest continuously-published daily newspaper in the United States. Its market includes all of Rhode Island as well as seven cities and towns in Bristol County Massachusetts with a daily circulation of 55,344. In 2016, The Providence Journal was awarded the New England Newspaper of the Year from NENPA. Its series “Race in Rhode Island” won a National Association of Black Journalists Salute to Excellence award. With an evolving digital platform, the market’s top local media website providencejournal.com offers an online source for award-winning news, sports, lifestyles, entertainment, editorials, and more and has monthly page views of over 5.2 million.

The Newport Media Group was acquired in November 2017 and publishes the 171 year old The Newport Daily News with daily circulation of 7,804 along with a weekly publication and several magazine and tourism mastheads. Newport is home of the U.S. Navy War College and attracts over 3.5 million visitors annually.

The Nantucket Island Media Group publishes The Inquirer and Mirror and is the weekly newspaper of record for Nantucket Island. With a paid weekly circulation of 7,395, it has the largest circulation of any island newspaper and high quality Nantucket magazine with readership far beyond the island. The newspapers' website, ack.net, receives over 424,000 monthly page views.

The Norwich, Connecticut publication, The Bulletin, with a daily circulation of 7,588 , diversifies this group as the eastern Connecticut economy differs from the nation and New England markedly. Primary economic drivers include casinos, military submarine manufacturing and pharmaceutical research. Major industrial employers in the region include General Dynamics, Pfizer, Dow Chemical, Dominion Resources and the United States Navy.

Mid-Atlantic Publishing Group. This cluster includes the Hudson Valley Media Group, the Pocono Mountains Media Group, Delaware, and Honesdale, Pennsylvania cluster and the five publications located in the Philadelphia and Beaver County, Pennsylvania markets.

The Hudson Valley Media Group publishes one paid daily, two free weekly newspapers, and one shopper. The flagship publication of the Hudson Valley Media Group is the Times Herald-Record . With a daily circulation of 30,209, the Times Herald-Record is the premier daily newspaper serving Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties in New York and Pike County, Pennsylvania. The newpapers' successful website, recordtimes.com , receives monthly page views of over 4.1 million. The Hudson Valley Media group’s commercial print division publishes 120 weekly, bi- weekly and monthly publications. They are endorsed by both NY and NJ Newspaper Publisher Association groups. Hudson Valley Media also produces Orange and Ulster Magazine. Both are perfect bound glossy magazines. The Times Herald-Record won 14 awards in the 2016 New York State Associated Press Association contest. The newspaper received eight first-place awards, which is the most of any newspaper in the 45,000-125,000 circulation class.

The Pocono Mountains Media Group publishes one paid daily, one free weekly newspaper, and one shopper. The flagship publication of the Pocono Mountains Media Group is the Pocono Record . The Pocono Record is the premier daily and Sunday local paper in the Pocono Mountains area, with 6,945 daily circulation and 9,537 Sunday circulation.

In Delaware, the group publishes six weekly newspapers and various specialty papers that cover most of the state of Delaware and range from suburban Wilmington in the north to Central Sussex County at the southern end of the state. Circulation for the cluster is primarily free and totals approximately 42,121 weekly.

The Honesdale cluster, approximately 30 miles from Scranton, Pennsylvania, consists of six publications in the cities of Honesdale, Carbondale, Moscow and Hawley, Pennsylvania. The cluster was created from the daily and shopper operations in Honesdale and later supplemented by the acquisition of one bi-weekly and one shopper in Hawley as well as one weekly in Carbondale and another in Moscow.

The Mid-Atlantic group expanded in 2017 to include newspaper and digital media properties located in the Philadelphia and Beaver County, Pennsylvania markets. The Philadelphia cluster includes the Bucks County Courier Times , with daily circulation of 21,834, The Intelligencer , with daily circulation of 16,017 and the Burlington County Times in New Jersey, with daily circulation of 13,091. Print and online penetration for this Philadelphia media cluster reaches 41% of the markets they serve. The Beaver County, Pennsylvania newspapers consist of the Beaver County Times and the Elwood City Ledger (combined daily circulation of 18,268). These two media properties are the primary news source by reaching 55% of the market with its print and digital products.

South Atlantic Publishing Group . This cluster includes publications in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia.

The North Carolina cluster publishes eleven daily newspapers, seven weekly newspapers, and three shoppers. In western North Carolina, the Times-News in Hendersonville has daily circulation of 7,215. The Piedmont newspapers include The Star in Shelby, with daily circulation of 5,298 and The Gaston Gazette in Gastonia, with daily circulation of 11,640. Central North Carolina newspapers include The Dispatch in Lexington, publishing six days per week with daily circulation of 4,797, Times-News in Burlington, with daily circulation of 11,168, The Courier Tribune in Asheboro, publishing six days per week with daily circulation of 6,536, The Fayetteville Observer in Fayetteville, with daily circulation of 25,466, as well as three weekly publications and two shoppers with combined circulation of 74,600 and 87,137, respectively. In 2017 The Fayetteville Observer was honored with a number of editorial and advertising awards by the North Carolina Press Association and was named a 2017 “10 Newspapers that Do It Right” by Editor & Publisher. Coastal publications in North Carolina include The Free Press in Kinston, with daily circulation of 4,744, Sun Journal in New Bern, with daily circulation of 8,269, The Daily News in Jacksonville, with daily circulation of 9,370, and Star News in Wilmington, with daily circulation of 23,420. The Star News was named a 2016 “10 Newspapers That Do It Right” by Editor & Publisher.

In South Carolina the Spartanburg Herald-Journal has a daily circulation of 16,881. Spartanburg is the largest city, and the county seat of, Spartanburg County. The Herald-Journal’s primary distribution area is Spartanburg and Union counties. The Spartanburg Herald-Journal was recently honored with 44 press awards, including the President’s Cup for receiving the most awards out of any mid-sized publication in South Carolina for the seventh time in nine years, at the South Carolina Press Association’s annual meeting. The Herald-Journal won 17 first-place awards, including in the General Excellence and Newspaper Website categories, and GoUpstate.com was named the top newspaper website in South Carolina, winning a Best of the Best designation against other publications of all sizes.

In the South Atlantic Publishing Group, the South Carolina group expanded in 2017 to include the Bluffton Today , and in Georgia, The Augusta Chronicle , the Savannah Morning News , Athens Banner-Herald newspapers.

The Bluffton Today , a twice weekly free newspaper, and blufftontoday.com serve the residents of one of the fastest growing communities in South Carolina. Situated adjacent to Hilton Head Island, Bluffton Today , with a weekly circulation of 11,332, was founded in 2005 and is home delivered and placed on racks. The Sun Today , an edition of Bluffton Today , serves the highly sought readers of Sun City Hilton Head and is delivered to 6,574 households every Wednesday. The Jasper County Sun-Times , a weekly with a circulation of more than 3,900, is delivered free to residents of Jasper County, South Carolina on Wednesdays.

In Georgia, The Augusta Chronicle , founded in 1785, is the oldest daily newspaper in the South. The Augusta Chronicle , with 22,878 daily circulation and 26,909 Sunday circulation, heralds the first week in April with coverage of the elite Masters® Golf Tournament and leverages its website augusta.com with extensive coverage of the event. The Chronicle earned 13 Georgia Press Association awards in 2017. The market is unique by its diversity of industries, including being recently named the national cyber defense center for the United States, a development that will bring an influx of highly-educated people.

The Savannah Morning News in Georgia, with 19,938 daily circulation and 24,009 Sunday circulation, along with savannahnow.com boasts of winning more than 40 Georgia Press Association awards in 2017 in addition to being named the Best Newspaper in Georgia for three of the last four years. The Morning News has served the Coastal Empire of Georgia and the Low Country of South Carolina since 1850, with its motto being “The Light of the Coastal Empire.” Today, the Morning News has evolved into a multi-platform media company with multiple weekly and monthly publications along with a strong stable of events and digital solutions. Its website attracts an average of 6 million page views and 680,000 unique visitors each month.

The Athens Banner-Herald , founded in 1832, can trace its roots back as one of Georgia's oldest newspapers. Athens is home to the University of Georgia and the Georgia Bulldogs. The Banner-Herald boasts a long tradition of award-winning news and sports coverage including winning the GPA General Excellence award multiple times in the past decade. The Banner-Herald has a daily circulation of 8,190 and 10,031 on Sundays. The newspaper's website, OnlineAthens.com , has nearly 800,000 unique visitors monthly resulting in more than 4.0 million page views each month. Known as the Classic City, Athens has a rich cultural heritage and is known as the home of legendary musical acts like R.E.M. and The B-52s. Athens also has become the focal point in the state for craft breweries. Athens receives regular mentions in lists of best places to live and retire by such national publications as Outside Magazine and Forbes.

In Tennessee, The Columbia Daily Herald in Columbia has a daily circulation of 5,682 and publishes six days a week (Sunday through Friday). The Columbia Daily Herald serves Maury County, Tennessee and the surrounding Middle Tennessee region, and also publishes one weekly newspaper and one shopper. The Oak Ridger in Oak Ridge, Tennessee has a daily circulation of 2,832 and serves Anderson County, Tennessee.

In Petersburg, Virginia the daily publication is The Progress-Index, with daily circulation of 5,592, which covers the three cities of Petersburg, Colonial Heights and Hopewell, along with the counties of Chesterfield, Dinwiddie and Prince George.

Coastal Publishing Group. This cluster includes publications in Florida and Alabama.

The Florida cluster publishes 11 daily newspapers, 13 weekly newspapers, and six shoppers. On the West Coast of Florida serving Sarasota and Manatee counties is the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning Herald-Tribune with daily circulation of 47,790 which operates a family of digital products anchored by the successful heraldtribune.com website that receives monthly page views of over 3.9 million. In 2016, the Herald-Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. In 2017, the Herald-Tribune took home close to 100 journalism awards from various national, regional and state organizations. The “Bias on the Bench” series won over twenty awards including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the American Society of News Editors' Batten Medal for public service journalism, the Society of Professional Journalists’ national Sigma Delta Chi Award, the Gene Miller Award for Investigative Reporting and the First Amendment Foundation Freedom of Information Award, as well as other wins from the APME, Florida Public Defenders Association, FSNE and two EPPY Awards from Editor & Publisher. The Herald-Tribune was honorably mentioned as a 2017 “10 Newspapers That Do It Right” by Editor & Publisher; this is the third year in a row the Herald-Tribune has been recognized in this program.

On Florida’s east coast in Daytona Beach is the daily publication The Daytona Beach News-Journal , which serves Volusia and Flagler counties with a daily circulation of 43,329. The Daytona Beach News-Journal also publishes four shoppers with a total combined circulation of 176,347 and operates a successful website news-journalonline.com that receives monthly page views of over 4.6 million and over 685,00 monthly unique visitors. To the north is the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning daily publication, The Gainesville Sun , with daily circulation of 18,910, monthly page views of 5.0 million and 526,000 monthly unique users. The Gainesville Sun was honorably mentioned as a 2017 “10 Newspapers That Do It Right” by Editor & Publisher. The Gainesville Sun also produces GatorSports.com , the University of Florida athletics free website which has over 1.4 million monthly page views and 181,000 monthly unique users. To the south of Gainesville in the middle of Marion County is the daily publication, Ocala Star Banner , with daily circulation of 19,346. The Ocala Star Banner also publishes a successful website ocala.com which receives monthly page views of over 5.5 million and monthly unique visitors over 463,000. In Central Florida, The Ledger in Lakeland has daily circulation of 30,092 and operates a robust commercial print operation generating millions of dollars a year printing such titles as the Orlando Sentinel , New York Times , Wall Street Journal and USA TODAY . The Ledger’s website, theledger.com , receives over 4.2 million monthly page views and over 629,000 monthly unique visitors. Also in Central Florida, the Leesburg publication the Daily Commercial , with its daily circulation of 11,629, monthly page views of over 890,000 and 169,000 unique visitors, covers a region known for seaplanes, upscale retirement living and rural small towns. Located in an area contiguous to Orlando, the Daily Commercial also publishes a weekly newspaper, South Lake Press and two websites that are enjoying significant audience growth.

The Coastal Publishing Group expanded in northeast Florida in 2017 with The Florida Times-Union and the St. Augustine Record. The Florida Times-Union has a daily circulation of 40,555 and 59,275 on Sunday and the St. Augustine Record reside and overlap in two of the fastest growing counties in Florida, St. Johns County and Duval County. These publications have successful websites, St. Augustine.com and Jacksonville.com , with more than 1.5 million and 10.4 million page views monthly, respectively. Florida Times-Union writers won a dozen first-place awards in the 2017 Excellence in Journalism Competition organized by the Florida Press Club and have been honored numerous times in recent years in journalism excellence contests.

In the northwest Florida panhandle, publications include two dailies and eight weeklies across a ten-county area stretching from Franklin in the east to Santa Rosa in the west, and north to the state line. The daily in the East, the Panama City News Herald , with daily circulation of 12,040, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for investigative journalism. It also operates a growing website, newsherald.com , which receives over 2.3 million monthly page views and over 235,000 monthly unique visitors. To the west in Fort Walton Beach, the Northwest Florida Daily News , with a circulation of 14,069 also has a successful website, nwfdailynews.com that receives monthly page views of over 6.5 million and 437,000 monthly unique visitors. The Northwest Florida Daily News also operates successful and growing destination websites, destin.com and emeraldcoast.com .

In Alabama, the Pulitzer Prize winning daily publication, The Tuscaloosa News , has daily circulation of 15,374 and a successful website tuscaloosanews.com with more than 1.7 million page views per month and 424,000 unique users. In 2017 the Tuscaloosa News was recognized with the Associated Press Sports Editors’ highest award for the fourth time. The Tuscaloosa News also publishes tidesports.com . With daily circulation of 8,312, The Gadsden Times is the oldest continually operating business in Etowah County, It has monthly page views of 2.5 million and 222,000 monthly unique visitors.

The following table sets forth information regarding the number of publications and production facilities in the Eastern US Publishing:

Central US Publishing. Central US Publishing operates in the states of Illinois, Ohio, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

From the western shore of Lake Michigan to the eastern shore of the Mississippi River and running over 400 miles north to south, Illinois is a picture of manufacturing, agricultural and recreational diversity. Coupled with major daily newspapers from our publications in Rockford, Peoria, and the state capital of Springfield, we are the largest publishing company in Illinois. Fourteen paid daily newspapers, fourteen paid weekly newspapers, and sixteen shoppers provide coverage across the state, which is supported by four print production facilities.

Approximately 85 miles to the west of Chicago, Illinois is the Rockford Register Star supported by its 24,450 daily and 34,050 Sunday paid circulation base and its TMC product The Weekly, that mails over 120,000 copies. The Rockford Register Star operates a successful website, rrstar.com, that receive monthly page views of over 1.4 million.

The Journal (Freeport, IL) Standard is published Tuesday through Sunday. The newspaper’s coverage area includes Caroll, Jo Daviess, Ogle and Stephenson counties. The newspaper has a daily circulation of 5,315 and Sunday of 6,104. The Journal Standard also publishes a website journalstandard.com and receives monthly page views of over 565,000 and monthly unique visitors over 89,000.

The Peoria Journal Star with its paid daily circulation of 47,878 is the leading newspaper in Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford counties and is also distributed in an additional 17 surrounding counties. There are two shoppers- The Marketplace and Pekin Extra -which have a combined weekly circulation of 103,918. The Peoria facility provides print services to our neighboring New Media publications and commercial printing for Lee Enterprises’ The Pantagraph and The News Gazette in Champaign, Illinois . The market includes manufacturing facilities for Caterpillar and Komatsu, and higher education at Bradley University, Illinois Central College and Midstate College. Peoria has a large medical community including OSF Healthcare, UnityPoint Health - Methodist, UnityPoint Health - Proctor, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Illinois and St. Jude Children’s Hospital Midwest Affiliate. It has agricultural facilities Archer Daniels Midland, LG Seeds and the USDA Ag Lab. The Journal Star has pjstar.com with monthly page views of over 3.2 million per month and monthly unique visitors over 625,000.

We also own numerous other publications in smaller communities in Western Illinois and Southern Illinois that include 39 print publications and more than 20 websites. Total households reached each week by the print publications are over 185,000.

The Springfield State Journal-Register with a paid daily circulation of 23,165 and paid Sunday circulation of 29,476 covers the state capital of Illinois. The paid daily circulation includes a branded edition of 1,531 of the Lincoln Courier. The State Journal-Register also has successful websites with monthly unique visitors of more than 535,000 and page views of more

than 3.6 million. In addition to being the state capital, Springfield is home to incredible multi-national companies such as Bunn, Brandt and LRS. The University of Illinois - Springfield is one of three campuses for the University of Illinois. The healthcare industry is a top employer and has solidified Springfield as a primary provider of services in Illinois with Memorial Health Systems, St John’s Hospital and Southern Illinois’s School of Medicine. Our core market includes a population of over 240,000, and the average household income is $71,400.

In Columbus, Ohio, we operate a variety of print and digital news and information brands.  The flagship brand is  The Columbus Dispatch  with a daily circulation of 98,931 and a Sunday circulation of 149,610.  Other affiliates of Dispatch Media Group include  ThisWeek Community Newspapers (a group of 21 weekly community publications)   with a weekly distribution of 272,401,  Columbus Parent, alive!,  ThriveHive/DMG (with more than 21 Central Ohio websites), Columbus Monthly, Columbus CEO,  On Target Marketing/TheBAG, and eleven other specialty magazine publications, including  Columbus Weddings, CityGuide, Health Guide, Everyday Heroes and  Restaurant Guide, as well as a show division that produces Home & Garden Shows (Spring & Fall), Columbus Weddings Show, Scholar Athlete Awards, Everyday Heroes and CBUS Top Picks events in central Ohio.  Through its print & digital operations, this group has a paid and free circulation of over 1.2 million in central Ohio and the websites averaged over 10 million page views per month in 2017.

We own several other publications throughout Ohio which cover Stark, Tuscarawas, Wayne, Holmes, Guernsey, Portage, Summit and Ashland counties. It is comprised of eight daily newspapers, fourteen weekly publications and a variety of monthly, quarterly and annual magazines. The largest daily in the group is The Repository, a 32,955 daily newspaper that covers the entirety of Stark County. The (Massillon) Independent is a 5,636 circulation daily that circulates in western Stark County. Covering eastern Stark County is the 6,446 circulation daily, The Alliance Review . The (Dover New Philadelphia) Times Reporter is a 11,612 daily publication located 40 miles south of Canton in Tuscarawas County. Just 30 miles south of Dover is The Daily Jeffersonian, a 6,512 circulation daily located in Cambridge, OH serving Guernsey County. The Daily-Record is a 15,831 circulation daily operating out of Wooster, OH in Wayne County. The Record-Courier is a 11,763 circulation daily located in Kent, Ohio covering Portage County. Covering Ashland County and located in Ashland, OH is the 7,485 circulation daily, The Times-Gazette . The Suburbanite is a 30,000 weekly publication that circulates in the affluent northern Stark county and southern Summit county area. Rounding out The Suburbanite family is the North Canton Suburbanite and Jackson Suburbanite , weeklies with circulation of 16,500 and 12,500 respectively. Operating out of Kent, Ohio are seven weekly publications ( Aurora Advocate, Falls News Press, Stow Sentry, The News Leader, Hudson Hub Times, Twinsburg Bulletin and Talmadge Express ) distributing in Portage and Summit counties with distribution of 81,700. About Magazine is the flagship of a robust magazine division that publishes several monthly, quarterly and annual publications. About Magazine is a lifestyle publication which reaches 35,000 households monthly. The Canton, Ohio facility also provides commercial print services to the New York Times and several regional publications. In Wooster, the printing facility has commercial work generating over $1 million in annual sales. This group in Ohio has very successful websites with more than 9.6 million combined monthly page views and more than 1.7 million monthly unique visitors. Together, the newspapers and websites dominate their local markets.

Central New York is anchored by the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, New York which has circulation of 19,794 daily and 25,207 Sunday subscribers. The Utica operations include two dailies, the Observer-Dispatch mentioned previously and the Times-Telegram with a daily circulation of 2,402 covering the towns of Herkimer and Little Falls. Along with the dailies are two weeklies; Mid-York Weekly in Hamilton and The Pennysaver which distributes to 37,555 households in Utica. Utica also has websites with combined monthly page views of more than 2.7 million. In addition we round out our Herkimer County coverage with a weekly shopper titled Your Valley which distributes to 10,000 homes.

Also in New York we operate and own a combination of sixteen publications in suburban Rochester that span four counties and have a combined circulation of 119,990. This market has a tourism industry and is known for boutique wineries and recreational activities. The flagship of the suburban Rochester group is the 6,099 circulation Daily Messenger in Canandaigua.

In southwestern New York, our operations are centered around five publications based in Steuben County. In Corning, The Leader , a 3,763 circulation daily newspaper, dominates the eastern half of the county and shares its hometown namesake with Corning Incorporated. The Evening Tribune in Hornell circulates six days a week throughout the western half of the county. Situated directly between these two dailies in the county seat of Bath is the 11,130 circulation Steuben Courier , a free-distribution weekly. The Pennysaver Plus , a standalone shopper, solidifies this flagship group.

We also have a strong presence in the print advertising markets in three other New York counties that surround Steuben. In Allegany County to the west, the Wellsville Daily Reporter and its shopper, the Pennysaver Plus in Wellsville, cover most households. In Livingston County to the north, the Pennysaver Plus and the Genesee Country Express complement one another with combined circulation of 23,210. In Yates County to the north and east, The Chronicle-Express and Chronicle Ad-Visor shopper distribute weekly to nearly 12,915 households centered around the county seat of Penn Yan.

In nearby Chemung County, the 14,867 circulation Horseheads Shopper anchors our presence in this area. The majority of the southwestern New York cluster parallels Interstate 86 across the central southern tier of New York State, which is benefiting from continued improvement and expansion under an omnibus federal highway appropriations bill. Moreover, the cluster has several colleges and universities nearby, including Cornell University, Ithaca College, Elmira College and Corning Community College.

We have a strong presence in southern Michigan where six of our dailies, in Adrian, Monroe, Coldwater, Holland, Hillsdale and Sturgis, along with one weekly and seven shoppers blanket the southern tier of the state and into Indiana. The 8,006 daily and 15,022 Sunday circulation Holland Sentinel is the flagship publication of the group. This area has several large employers, including Delphi, ConAgra, Tecumseh Products, Kellogg, JCI, Herman Miller, Hayworth, Gentex, Jackson State Prison, and a number of colleges and universities. Monroe News boasts a 12,843 Sunday circulation. The Monroe News publishes 11,164 daily copies and is situated on Lake Erie. Monroe is the headquarters for La-Z-Boy and Tenneco Corporation. The Michigan Group also publishes several magazines including Shoreline Magazine with 10,000 circulation, Neighbors Magazine and Envision Magazine with circulation of 11,000 copies, and Monroe Magazine with 9,000 circulation.

We also have a strong presence in the northeast region of both the lower peninsula and the upper peninsula of Michigan where we offer two dailies, the Cheboygan Daily Tribune and the Sault Evening News along with two weekly Shoppers. This area has several large employers such as Carmeuse Corporation, Lake Superior State University, North Central Michigan Community College, Kewadin Casino, McLaren Medical, Mackinac Straits Hospital, Great Lakes Tissue Company, along with multiple Tourism Bureaus and Chamber of Commerce. We pride ourselves on a saturated circulation of our Cheboygan's Shoppers Fair and the Soo's Buyer's Guide totaling over 28,000 readers. The upper peninsula group also publishes The Mackinac Journal which is a monthly publication and is distributed throughout all of northern Michigan and the eastern Upper Peninsula.

Our Pennsylvania/West Virginia cluster includes dailies in Erie and Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and Keyser, West Virginia. We also have two weeklies in Ripley, West Virginia, one weekly in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, and one shopper in Keyser, West Virginia. The  Erie Times-News  in Erie, Pennsylvania has circulation of 30,165 daily and 39,750 Sunday. The Erie Times-News operates one daily newspaper covering Erie, Crawford and Warren counties. Erie also operates GoErie.com, which has over 1.8 million unique visitors a month and over 5.5 million page views.

The communities we serve in Central US Publishing are largely rural but also support educational institutions, government agencies (including prisons and military bases), tourism, veterinary medicine and ethanol and agricultural chemical manufacturing. The area also includes automotive (including recreational vehicles), boat, home construction products and furniture manufacturing businesses.

The following table sets forth information regarding the number of publications and production facilities in Central US Publishing:

Western US Publishing. Western US Publishing operates in the states of Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, California, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Alaska, Colorado, Nebraska and North Dakota.

The greatest concentration of circulation and market presence in Missouri is in the northern part of the state where we operate six daily newspapers, four weekly newspapers and seven shoppers. We serve the 22,000 square mile area from Hannibal, on the state’s eastern border, to the western border and from Columbia in the south to the Iowa border in the north. Local employers include the University of Missouri and other colleges, local and federal governments, State Farm Insurance and 3M.

Operating in the county seat of Boone County, the Columbia Tribune strengthens the market presence in Missouri where we operate a daily newspaper and two shoppers. Columbia, Missouri has an estimated population of 110,108 in 2015 and has three local colleges: University of Missouri, Stephens College and Columbia College.

Our southern Missouri operations are clustered around Lake of the Ozarks. With one of the largest lakes in the state, the area boasts over 70,000 vacation homes and receives over 3,000 boats on the lake during Fourth of July weekend alone. One of the premiere vacation spots, the Lake of the Ozarks has numerous golf courses including the Lodge of Four Seasons, a Championship Robert Trent Jones course, as well as the Osage National Golf Club, with an Arnold Palmer layout. Located midway between Kansas City and St. Louis and approximately 90 miles from Springfield, Missouri, our three daily newspapers, seven weekly newspapers and four shoppers that serve the Lake of the Ozarks area reach approximately 105,000 people.

Located in Southwest Missouri is our Joplin cluster with two daily and two weekly newspapers and one shopper, serving a population of approximately 170,000. There are several colleges and universities in the area, a National Guard Fort, several large medical centers and a diverse mix of retail businesses, including the 120-store Northpark Mall. Our daily newspaper in Independence, Missouri serves one of Kansas City’s suburbs.

In northeast Kansas is our Kansas City Cluster, which is now anchored by the Topeka Capitol Journal that provides rich state government and popular university sports coverage with a daily circulation of 18,757. The Topeka Capitol Journal also has a very successful website, cjonline.com , with monthly unique visitors over 900,000 resulting in over 7.5 million monthly page views. The Leavenworth Times was one of our original daily newspapers, while the military publication, The Fort Leavenworth Lamp , in Fort Leavenworth serves that community. The Kansas City cluster is home to several companies, including Hallmark, H&R Block, Sprint, Cerner, Garmin, and the University of Kansas.

Our Wichita cluster consists of six dailies, five weeklies and seven shoppers including the Hutchinson News , the Salina Journal , the Garden City Telegram , the Hays Daily News , and the Ottawa Herald . All publish daily except the Ottawa paper, which publishes three days a week. Together, the Wichita cluster reaches over 130,000 people and are home to points of interest such as the Salt Mines and the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center which houses the Apollo 13 command module and numerous rockets.

Located in the state of Texas, with 27 publications (four daily, ten weekly newspapers, and thirteen shoppers). The group consists of three distinct operations. The first consists of the Lubbock Avalanche and Amarillo Daily News , and associated publications. The second is a collection of small-market dailies and companion publications in central Texas in the towns of Stephenville, Brownwood and Waxahachie. The third is a well-established shopper group serving the growing cities of the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. These shoppers serve Brownville, Harlingen, Laredo, McAllen, Alice and Corpus Christi, Texas.

The Herald Democrat , also in Texas, principally serves Grayson county, Texas, with the largest metropolitan area served located in Sherman, Texas with a daily circulation of 10,175. This area attracts many outdoor lifestyles as it is home to Lake Texoma and receives over 6 million visitors a year. The Herald Democrat has a growing digital platform with their website heralddemocrat.com and extends the newspapers reach to consumers nationwide with monthly page views of over 430,000. The Herald Democrat also publishes three weekly newspapers and two shoppers.

In Louisiana, we have an operating cluster in the southwestern part of the state, located between Lake Charles and Alexandria. This cluster consists of three publications located in the cities of Leesville and DeRidder. Local employers include major manufacturers such as Alcoa, Firestone, International Paper and Proctor & Gamble.

Our Baton Rouge cluster consists of three dailies, four weeklies and three shoppers in the southeastern Louisiana cities of Bastrop, Houma, Thibodaoux, Donaldsonville, Gonzales, and Plaquemine. Numerous petrochemical companies such as BASF, Exxon Mobil and Dow Chemical, plus universities including Louisiana State, support the local economies.

In Fort Smith, Arkansas is the Southwest Times-Record, which has been a primary news source in northwest Arkansas for over a century with a daily circulation of 15,887. The Southwest Times Record digital platform extends the newspaper’s reach to consumers nationwide through its website swtimes.com with monthly page views of over 839,000. The Southwest Times Record also publishes six weekly newspapers and a shopper and principally serves Sebastian and Crawford counties in Arkansas and Le Flore and Sequoyah counties in Oklahoma with the largest metropolitan area served being Fort Smith, Arkansas. In Southeast Arkansas is our award-winning newspaper The Pine Bluff Commercial, which serves as the primary source of news in central and southeast Arkansas with daily circulation of 5,127. The Pine Bluff Commercial also reaches its readers through their successful website pbcommercial.com with monthly page views of over 356,000. The Log Cabin Democrat serves the vibrant community of Conway, Arkansas and the surrounding area.

To the West in Oklahoma is the Examiner-Enterprise in Bartlesville, which is one of the state’s largest daily newspaper with circulation of 4,917. The Examiner-Enterprise is an award-winning publication with awards including Oklahoma Press Association recognition for website, editorials, photography, and news coverage. The Examiner-Enterprise also publishes one weekly newspaper and one shopper. Having once been home to Phillips Petroleum Company, the town tourism offers a yearly OK Mozart festival featuring classical, jazz, light opera as well as tours of the old Phillips home, including a wildlife preserve.

We are represented in California with publications reaching from Northern California and through the southern desert. In the southern area, we operate in the Victorville, Barstow, Ridgecrest and Taft areas with two dailies, four weeklies and two shoppers. Serving areas such as the China Lake naval base in Ridgecrest, Taft’s oil industry location near Bakersfield, and the Apple Valley area of Victorville and Barstow, numerous employers are located in these areas in the categories of technology, medical, education and military. In the Northern area, we operate one daily newspaper in Yreka, four paid weekly papers in Dunsmuir, Mt. Shasta, Weed, and Gridley, and two shoppers in Gridley and Mt. Shasta. In the Stockton, California area, we publish one paid daily, one free weekly paper, and two shoppers. The flagship publication of the area is The Record . The Record , with a daily circulation of 15,935, is the premier daily and Sunday local paper in the Stockton, California area.

La Junta, in the southeastern part of the state, represents the Colorado properties. Along with La Junta we also serve Bent county and Fowler, Colorado and produce the weekly agricultural newspaper, The Ag Journal .

We also have a cluster near Grand Forks, North Dakota (home to the Grand Forks Air Force Base and the University of North Dakota), and Iowa, where Cargill, ConAgra, Kraft, Winnebago and Fort Dodge Animal Health, a division of Wyeth, each maintain significant operations.

We are represented in southwestern Minnesota through seven paid weekly newspapers and three shoppers. St. James, Redwood Falls, Sleepy Eye, Granite Falls, Cottonwood, Wabasso, and Montevideo are all communities with populations of 10,000 and under. These papers represent the primary local news and information source for these communities.

The Ames Tribune is Central Iowa’s Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, with a daily circulation of 6,386. The Ames Tribune’s digital platform allows customers, both local and nationwide, to access content through its market-leading website, amestrib.com with over 600,000 monthly page views. Ames Tribune also publishes five weekly newspapers and four shoppers. With a 2010 designation of Top 10 Best Places to Live (CNN MONEY), the area’s top employer is the Iowa State University, with leading agriculture, design, engineering and veterinary colleges. The Hawkeye in Burlington, Iowa sits on the Illinois border and is rated one of the Top 10 up and coming markets in the U.S. by multiple national publications.

The following table sets forth information regarding the number of publications and production facilities in the Western Publishing Group:

BridgeTower. BridgeTower is comprised largely of local and regional business-oriented publications, websites, databases, live events, virtual events, thought leadership programs and research, operating in three main clusters: the (1) Business Group, (2) Legal Group and (3) Best Companies Group. BridgeTower serves over 150,000 engaged subscribers and reaches more than 880,000 readers across its publications and e-newsletters.

Business Group. We are one of the leading owners of business journals in the U.S., producing several daily, weekly, biweekly and monthly publications, as well as data products, webinars and live events. Anchored by an experienced team of award-winning journalists, the business brands provide relevant, actionable news and analysis for the business, construction, retail and real estate communities in more than 11 markets across the nation. In addition to digital and print advertising, the Business Group earns a sizable portion of revenue from paid subscription products, live events and thought leadership programs.

Regionally, the Business Group spans the entire country, reaching as far west as Portland, OR; New Orleans, La., in the South; and Long Island, NY, in the Northeast. Specifically, this group includes the following publications: The Journal Record (Oklahoma City, OK); City Business (New Orleans, LA); Daily Journal of Commerce (New Orleans, LA); Idaho Business Review ( Boise, ID); Long Island Business News (Ronkonkoma, NY); The Daily Reporter (Milwaukee, WI); NJBiz (Somerset, NJ); Pet Age (Somerset, NJ); Finance & Commerce (Minneapolis, MN); Lehigh Valley Business (Allentown, PA); Central Penn Business Journal (Harrisburg, PA); Central Penn Parent (Harrisburg, PA), Rochester Business Journal (Rochester, NY); and Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR); Charleston Regional Business Journal (Charleston, SC); Columbia Regional Business Report (Columbia, SC); and GSA Business Report (Greenville, SC).

Legal Group. We are one of the leading operators of regionally-focused legal publications in the U.S., producing several daily, weekly and monthly publications, as well as data products, webinars and live events. Guided by a veteran team of award-winning journalists and attorneys, the Legal Group provides relevant, actionable news, analysis and legal opinions for lawyers, judges and legislators. In addition to paid subscriptions, digital and print advertising, the Legal Group earns a sizable portion of revenue from events, webinars and legislative alert services.

Regionally, the Legal Group stretches across the U.S. Specifically, this group includes the following publications: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (Boston, MA); Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly; Wisconsin Law Journal (Milwaukee, WI); Missouri Lawyers Weekly (St. Louis, MO); North Carolina Lawyers Weekly (Charlotte, NC): South Carolina Lawyers Weekly; Minnesota Lawyer (Minneapolis, MN); Michigan Lawyers Weekly (Detroit, MI); Virginia Lawyers Weekly (Richmond, VA); Arizona Capitol Times (Phoenix, AZ) and The Daily Record (Baltimore, MD).

Best Companies Group. BCG is BridgeTower’s research unit and is best known for producing ‘Best Places to Work’ data in more than 45 markets and industry categories across the globe, with programs in the U.S., U.K., Canada and North Africa. Leveraging its proprietary surveys, BCG collects data from employers and employees of its client companies and then analyzes that information to assess employee engagement. Based in Harrisburg, PA, Best Companies also conducts custom research projects within industries such as automotive, banking and healthcare.

Color Magazine. Color Magazine, based in Needham, MA, is BridgeTower’s platform for diversity events and consulting, and is best known for its regional leadership & empowerment events for professionals of color; All-Inclusive Awards in Boston; and CDO Summit, an annual gathering for chief diversity officers and other executives focused on diversity.

Directories

The core of our directory portfolio is Surewest Directories located in and around the Sacramento, California area, primarily in Roseville, California. The directory has a circulation of approximately 270,000 and services areas of Placer and Sacramento counties. The Roseville directory has served the local Roseville community for over 100 years and has achieved more than 50% market share.

We also own one additional directory based in Mt. Shasta, California.

UpCurve

UpCurve is our business services product line with digital products designed for SMBs. UpCurve provides two broad categories of services: ThriveHive which provides marketing services for every SMB regardless of size, and UpCurve Cloud which offers best-in-breed cloud-based products with expert migration, integration, and support. We believe the digital services industry represents a large and expanding opportunity. UpCurve is a product offering we created to attack that opportunity.

There were approximately 29.6 million SMBs in the U.S. in 2014 and about 29.0 million had 20 employees or less according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Although these businesses are increasingly beginning to recognize the need to establish and maintain a strategy for the digital space, most do not have the time, expertise or resources to handle this themselves.

UpCurve is a product line that can become the outsourced digital marketing services department for those SMBs. ThriveHive’s products help SMBs build a presence across digital platforms, help them get found by consumers, help them

engage with and grow their customer base. We pull these products together for the SMB with a proprietary customer dashboard which integrates activity and results for all ThriveHive products.

We also believe UpCurve gives us an opportunity to expand beyond our current geographic boundaries, as its product set is of value to SMBs around the country.

Revenue

Our operations generate three primary types of revenue: (i) advertising, (ii) circulation (including home delivery subscriptions, single copy sales and digital subscriptions) and (iii) other (primarily commercial printing, alternate delivery, digital marketing and business services and events). In 2017 , these revenue streams accounted for approximately 51%, 35% and 14%, respectively, of our total revenue. The contribution of advertising, circulation and other revenue to our total revenue for New Media for the years ended December 31, 2017 , December 25, 2016 and December 27, 2015 was as follows:

We believe that our advertising revenue tends to be less volatile than the advertising revenue of large metropolitan and national print media because we rely primarily on local, rather than national advertising and our classified revenue tends to be more local market oriented (job listing, for example). We generally derive 95% or more of our advertising revenue from local advertising (local retail, local classified and online) and less than 5% from national advertising. We believe that local advertising tends to be less sensitive to economic cycles than national advertising because local businesses generally have fewer effective advertising channels through which they may reach their customers.

Our advertising rate structures vary among our publications and are a function of various factors, including local market conditions, competition, circulation, readership and demographics. Management works with local newspaper management to set advertising rates and a portion of our publishers’ incentive compensation is based upon growing advertising revenue. Our sales compensation program emphasizes digital and new business growth. We share advertising concepts throughout our network of publishers and advertising directors, including periodic special section programs, enabling them to utilize advertising products and sales strategies that are successful in other markets we serve.

Substantially all of our advertising revenue is derived from a diverse group of local retailers and local classified advertisers, resulting in very limited customer concentration. No single advertiser accounted for more than 1% of our total revenue in 2017 , 2016 or 2015 and our 20 largest advertisers account for less than 10% of total revenue.

Our advertising revenue tends to follow a seasonal pattern, with higher advertising revenue in months containing significant events or holidays. Accordingly, our first quarter, followed by our third quarter, historically, are our weakest quarters

of the year in terms of revenue. Correspondingly, our second and fourth fiscal quarters, historically, are our strongest quarters. We expect that this seasonality will continue to affect our advertising revenue in future periods.

We have experienced declines in advertising revenue over the past few years, due primarily to the secular pressures on the business as consumers and advertisers shift time and spend from traditional media to the internet. We continue to search for organic growth opportunities, specifically with digital advertising and ways to stabilize print revenue declines through strengthening local news product, value based pricing and training of sales staff.

Circulation

Our circulation revenue is derived from home delivery sales to subscribers, single copy sales at retail stores and vending racks and boxes, and digital subscriptions. We own 142 paid daily publications that range in circulation from approximately 700 to 99,000 and 202 paid weekly publications that range in circulation from approximately 100 to 16,000. Circulation revenue accounted for approximately 35%, 33% and 32% of our total revenue in 2017 , 2016 or 2015 , respectively.

Subscriptions are typically sold for three to twelve-month terms and often include promotions to extend the average subscription period or convert someone to become a subscriber. We also provide bundled print and digital subscriptions and employ pay meters for our website content at most of our daily publications. We implement marketing programs to increase readership through subscription and single copy sales, including company-wide and local circulation contests, direct mail programs, door-to-door sales and strategic alliances with local schools in the form of “Newspapers in Education” programs. In addition, since the adoption of the Telemarketing Sales Rule by the Federal Trade Commission in 2003, which created a national “do not call” registry, we have increased our use of “EZ Pay” programs, kiosks, sampling programs, in-paper promotions and online promotions to increase our circulation.

We encourage subscriber use of EZ Pay, a monthly credit card charge or direct bank debit payment program, which has led to higher retention rates for subscribers. We also use an active stop-loss program for all expiring subscribers. Additionally, in order to improve our circulation revenue and circulation trends, we periodically review the need for quality enhancements, such as:

We believe that our unique and valuable hyper-local content allows us to continue to produce products of great relevance to our local market audiences. This allows us to be able to periodically raise prices, both for home delivery and on a single copy basis, resulting in increased circulation revenues. We also believe this unique hyper-local content will allow us to find ways to grow circulation revenues from our wide array of digital products.

Other

We provide commercial printing services to third parties on a competitive bid basis as a means to generate incremental revenue and utilize excess printing capacity. These customers consist primarily of other publishers that do not have their own printing presses and do not compete with our publications. We also print other commercial materials, including flyers, business cards and invitations. Additionally, this category includes UpCurve which provides digital marketing and business services for SMBs and GateHouse Live, our events business. Other sources of revenue, including commercial printing and UpCurve, accounted for approximately 14%, 12% and 10% of our total revenue in 2017 , 2016 or 2015 , respectively.

Printing and Distribution

We own and operate 54 print facilities. Our print facilities produce nine publications on average and are generally located within 60 miles of the communities served. By clustering our production resources or outsourcing where cost beneficial, we are able to reduce the operating costs of our publications while increasing the quality of our small and midsize market publications that would typically not otherwise have access to high quality production facilities. We also believe that we are able to reduce future capital expenditure needs by having fewer overall pressrooms and buildings. We believe our superior production quality is critical to maintaining and enhancing our position as the leading provider of local news coverage in the markets we serve. As

other print media businesses look to reduce costs, we believe we have the opportunity to leverage our unutilized press time to grow our commercial print customer base and revenue.

The distribution of our daily newspapers is typically outsourced to independent, locally based, third-party distributors that also distribute a majority of our weekly newspapers and non-newspaper publications. We continuously evaluate lower cost options for newspaper delivery. In addition, certain of our shopper and weekly publications are delivered via the U.S. Postal Service.

Availability of Raw Materials for Our Business—Newsprint

The basic raw material for our publications is newsprint. We generally maintain only a 45 to 55-day inventory of newsprint.

Historically, the market price of newsprint has been volatile, reaching a high of approximately $823 per metric ton in 2008 and a low of $410 per metric ton in 2002. However, from 2010 to 2017, there was much less volatility in newsprint pricing, and we have benefited from negotiating a fixed annual price for a majority of our newsprint. The average market price of newsprint during 2017 was approximately $635 per metric ton.

In 2016, we consumed approximately 109,700 metric tons of newsprint (inclusive of commercial printing), and the cost of our newsprint consumption totaled approximately $62.0 million. In contrast, in 2017, we consumed approximately 115,900 metric tons of newsprint (inclusive of commercial printing), and the cost of our newsprint consumption totaled approximately $66.3 million. Our newsprint expense typically averages less than 10% of total revenue, which we believe generally compares favorably to larger, metropolitan newspapers.

For our 2016 and 2017 purchases of newsprint, we negotiated a fixed price for approximately 90% and 88%, respectively, of our newsprint tons which allowed us to eliminate some of the volatility of the market price.

Competition

Each of our publications competes for advertising revenue to varying degrees with traditional media outlets such as direct mail, yellow pages, radio, outdoor advertising, broadcast and cable television, magazines, local, regional and national newspapers, shoppers and other print and online media sources, including local blogs. We also increasingly compete with new digital and social media companies for advertising revenue. However, we believe that barriers to entry remain high in many of the markets we serve in terms of being the preeminent source for local news and information therein, because our markets are generally not large enough to support a second newspaper and because our local news gathering infrastructures, sales networks and relationships would be time consuming and costly to replicate. We also have highly-recognized local brand names and long histories in the towns we serve.

We also provide our readers with community-specific content, which is generally not available from other media sources. We believe that our direct and focused coverage of the market and our cost effective advertising rates relative to more broadly circulated metropolitan newspapers allow us to tailor an approach for our advertisers. As a result, our publications generally capture a large share of local advertising in the markets they serve.

The level of competition and the primary competitors we face vary from market to market. Competition tends to be based on market penetration, demographic and quality factors, as opposed to price factors. The competitive environment in each of our operating regions is discussed in greater detail below.

Eastern US Publishing. In Eastern US Publishing, the Boston Globe and boston.com , a metropolitan daily and website, respectively, owned by John Henry, compete with the publications throughout eastern Massachusetts. In addition, competition from other Massachusetts companies include approximately 16 dailies and 50 weeklies, three major radio station operators, five local network television broadcasters, one cable company and numerous niche publications for advertising revenues.

The Cape Cod and New Bedford, Massachusetts newspapers experience competition from weekly newspapers, local radio stations, shopping guides, directories and niche publications.

In Middletown, New York, The Times Herald-Record is the leading print and digital media and has an audience far larger than its competitors, including Daily newspapers owned by Gannett Company, Inc. ( Poughkeepsie Journal in Poughkeepsie, New York) and 21st Century Media, Inc. ( Daily Freeman in Kingston, New York) compete within the New York market. The Times Herald-Record also competes with 46 weekly, bi-weekly and monthly print products and Spectrum (formerly Time Warner Cable), radio stations and directories. The market is formally known as the Hudson Valley New York region.

The Company's publication, the  Providence Journal , is the leading daily newspaper in the state of Rhode Island followed by the Newport Daily News, which is also owned by us. Other daily newspaper operators in the state include Sun Publishing Company, owner of the  Westerly Sun  and three non-dailies in the state. RISN Operations, Inc. publishes four daily papers and five weekly publications serving communities in Providence county and Rhode Island. Three other companies publish more than 16 weeklies in Rhode Island. The Providence market has seven local network television stations and three major radio station operators, one cable company and numerous print and online niche publications, such as Rhode Island Monthly Magazine and the business publication, Providence Business News .

The Fayetteville Observer delivers to 10 counties in southeastern North Carolina. It is based in Cumberland County, home to Fayetteville and Fort Bragg, the nation’s largest Army installation. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates based in Raleigh, Durham and Wilmington cover the Fayetteville region, with at least two stations having small bureaus in Fayetteville. Beasley Broadcast Group and Cumulus Media Inc. dominate the radio market with stations including WFCN 640 AM news talk, WZFX 99.1 FM Foxy 99 urban contemporary, WKML 95.7 FM country, WQSM 98.1 FM hot adult contemporary, and WRCQ 103.5 FM rock. Mspark is the primary direct mail competitor. Lamar Advertising and Fairway Outdoor serve the billboard needs of the market. Niche print publications based in Fayetteville include Up & Coming Weekly, CityView Magazine and The Fayetteville Press . The Fayetteville Observer is by far the leading print and digital publication in the region.

The Company's publications, The Gainesville Sun and Ocala Star Banner, are the leading media in their respective markets, primarily Alachua and Marion counties. We compete with four television stations, which is unusual for markets this size. Gainesville has its own DMA and Ocala falls into the Orlando DMA. There are no other dailies in the market other than a slow movement by the Villages Daily Sun into Marion county (Ocala), a concern due to their offering the lowest home delivery and single copy rates of any Florida daily. They operate as part of one of the fastest growing developments in the county, The Villages. The Gainesville Sun also publishes a weekly newspaper, Gainesville Guardian , in east Gainesville and also a very successful city magazine, Gainesville Magazine .

In the Daytona Beach market, The Daytona Beach News-Journal is the leading media. Primary print competition for the west side of the coverage area is the Orlando Sentinel , owned by tronc, Inc. Smaller weekly competitive publications, including The Observer Group and Hometown News, are also in the market. Major radio and network television stations are out of the Orlando market.

In the Sarasota market, The Herald-Tribune publications are generally the leading media and have an audience far larger than the competitors for the main areas we serve. Daily newspapers owned by McClatchy ( Bradenton Herald ) and Sun Coast Media Group, the Charlotte Sun , border on the north and south ends of the market, respectively, and distribute in some circulation areas on the fringes. The Herald-Tribune prints the Bradenton Herald and is contracted to distribute all home delivery copies. The Sarasota market has one local network television station and several local radio station operators and cable companies as well as numerous non-daily print and online niche publications.

Located in central Florida, the publication, The Ledger , in Lakeland is bordered by the Orlando Sentinel to the east and the Tampa Bay Times to the west. In addition, competitors include multiple weekly newspapers and two radio stations. The Ledger is the leading media in the central Florida area it serves. The Lakeland Ledger started printing the Orlando Sentinel in September 2017.

In Tuscaloosa and Gadsden, the Tuscaloosa News and Gadsden Times, respectively, are the leading media in the markets they serve. Television that serves both markets is out of Birmingham, Alabama. The digital space is highly competitive with the competing site AL.com , owned by Advance Local, covering the state.

Central US Publishing. Central US Publishing operates in 115 markets and we believe our publications are the leading print advertising media in the vast majority of these markets. There are radio stations in or within 20 miles of every market in which we operate, but we do not believe that any of these radio station operators pose a significant competitive threat to our publications. Yellow page advertising is prevalent in all of our markets with either a local phone book or a regional phone book. We believe that, in most cases, yellow page advertising is geared more towards the professional services advertisers, such as attorneys and doctors, and not the local retail advertisers, as is the focus with our non-directory publications.

In the Columbus market, the advertising competition in print is minimal with just a weekly business journal and a few small monthly magazines. On the electronic and digital side, the competition is intense and is comprised of six network TV stations, three cable companies, ten radio stations, and twelve digital agencies, with SMART 1 being the most aligned with our UpCurve product set.

Lee Enterprises publishes the Southern Illinoisan in Carbondale, which is a regional newspaper that competes with our publication in West Frankfort. We believe our publication is the leading local daily, but we do compete on a regional basis with the larger dailies. We also compete with shoppers or weekly newspapers. This competition comes from small independent

operators and is not significant. We have very little television competition in this group because of our geographic location in relation to major markets. There are no local television affiliates in our markets.

In the Northeast market of this group, we believe our publications are generally the leading media. The competition we face in this region is from major newspaper companies: daily newspapers owned by Gannett Company, Inc. ( The Star-Gazette in Elmira, NY and the Chambersburg (PA) Public-Opinion ); Times-Shamrock Company’s Scranton (PA) The Times-Tribune and Towanda Daily/Sunday Review ; Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.’s Sunbury Daily Item ; and Ogden-Nutting’s Williamsport Sun-Gazette . We believe our publications tend to be the leading local publications in those markets.

In our Great Lakes markets, we believe our publications are generally the leading media in those markets. Our only significant competition comes from regional television stations in Adrian, Michigan. We also face competition from dozens of other competitors such as other local daily and weekly papers and niche publications, as well as radio and television stations, directories, direct mail and non-local internet websites, but none of these have proven to be significant.

Western US Publishing. In the southern regions of this group, we believe our publications are generally the leading media. Our major competition comes from regional daily newspapers, specifically: The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; The American Press in Lake Charles, Louisiana; The Joplin Globe ; and the Wichita Eagle . We also face competition from numerous other daily and weekly papers, local radio stations, shopping guides, directories and niche publications. That being said, our community newspapers operate generally in isolated markets where the newspapers are by far the leading sources of local news and print advertising. In the Sherman, Texas market, we believe our publications are generally the leading media in those markets with minor competition with The Dallas Morning News , which has minimal circulation, and it does not focus on local content. All weeklies in the Sherman, Texas market are controlled by us, though there is some weekly competition in outlying Texas and Oklahoma communities. Our publication, the Herald Democrat also competes with local TV stations and several locally-owned radio stations in the market.

In Arkansas, there is some minor competition from the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in northern Crawford county, Arkansas, but they have limited circulation in the Fort Smith market, as well as limited news coverage. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette circulates in the market with our publication, The Pine Bluff Commercial , but does not deliver the community coverage that is most relevant to Pine Bluff and the surrounding counties. This makes our publication the most relevant news source in the area. There are several locally-owned radio stations in the market that also compete with The Pine Bluff Commercial .

In the northern regions of this group, we control every local weekly and daily paper in Story county, Iowa and have weeklies in other neighboring counties, which is why we believe our publications are the leading news source in the area. The principal print competition is the Des Moines Register , but it does not deliver meaningful local community content.

The San Joaquin Media Group, with its flagship, The Record , is the leading local news source in Stockton; there is significant competition for print and digital dollars. In the county, competition comes from three community newspapers, each within 10 miles of Stockton, as well as The Sacramento Bee and Modesto Bee with smaller distribution in the county. Additionally, there are two successful glossy monthly magazines, a business journal, Red Plum (Valassis) , Lincoln Center Chronicle monthly and billboards everywhere.

While there is tougher competition in larger markets as compared to the smaller markets across the Western US, the strength of each of these groups comes from being local and having built trusted relationships over the last 100 years. None of our competitors have proven to be significant. Our publications and websites have a rich history in our markets which we believe uniquely positions them for unmatched reach and relevancy in their local audiences.

BridgeTower. Across the Business and Legal groups, we believe the majority of BridgeTower titles are the leading information provider within their respective niche, and many of our brands face no direct competition. In Baltimore and Minneapolis, we contend with business journals run by American City Business Journals , part of Advance Publications Inc. In states like Pennsylvania, we straddle counties that are covered by other business media but are the leading business brands in Lehigh Valley and Central PA. Our monthly magazine Pet Age, geared toward pet store owners, competes with Pet Business and Pet Product News.

In the legal space, we coexist and partner with state bar associations but otherwise face limited direct local competition. ALM continues to be the largest media company covering attorneys, but BridgeTower and ALM’s regional brands operate in separate regions. We believe Best Companies Group maintains the highest market share within the employee satisfaction research vertical, which includes Great Place to Work Institute and Workplace Dynamics.

Employees

As of December 31, 2017 , we employed 10,516 employees. We employ union personnel at a number of our core publications representing 1,194 employees. As of December 31, 2017 , there were 37 collective bargaining agreements covering union personnel. Most of our unionized employees work under collective bargaining agreements that expire in 2018. We believe that relations with our employees are generally good, and we have had no work stoppages at any of our publications.

Environmental Matters

We believe that we are in substantial compliance with all applicable laws and regulations for the protection of the environment and the health and safety of our employees based upon existing facts presently known to us. Compliance with federal, state, and local environmental laws and regulations relating to the discharge of substances into the environment, the disposal of hazardous wastes and other related activities has had, and will continue to have, an impact on our operations, but has been accomplished to date without having a material adverse effect on its operations. While it is difficult to estimate the timing and ultimate costs to be incurred due to uncertainties about the status of laws, regulations and technology, based on information currently known to us and insurance procured with respect to certain environmental matters, we do not expect environmental costs or contingencies to be material or to have a material adverse effect on our financial performance. Our operations involve risks in these areas, however, and we cannot assure you that we will not incur material costs or liabilities in the future which could adversely affect us.

Corporate Governance and Public Information

The address of New Media’s website is http://www.newmediainv.com/. Stockholders can access a wide variety of information on New Media’s website, under the “Investor Relations” tab, including news releases, SEC filings, information New Media is required to post online pursuant to applicable SEC rules, newspaper profiles and online links. New Media makes available via its website all filings it makes under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K, and related amendments, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. All such filings are available free of charge. Neither the content of New Media’s corporate website nor any other website referred to in this report are incorporated by reference into this report unless expressly noted. The public may read and copy any information New Media files with the SEC at the SEC’s public reference room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the public reference room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC also maintains a website (http://www.sec.gov) where New Media’s filings filed with the SEC are available free of charge.

List of New Media’s Dailies, Weeklies, Shoppers, Websites and Business Publications

As of December 31, 2017 , New Media’s dailies, weeklies, shoppers, websites and business publications were as listed below. New Media maintains registered trademarks in many of the masthead names listed below. Maintaining such trademarks allows us to exclusively use the masthead name to the exclusion of third parties.