ABOUT HARBORPOINT

July 23, 2004

In the largest deal of the third quarter of 2004, a New York investment firm acquired a newspaper group with operations in three states that it plans to use as a platform for building a larger publishing enterprise.
The firm, Sandler Capital Management, bought the 30,000-circulation Leesburg (FL) Daily Commercial, two dailies in Arkansas and several non-daily publications in the transaction.

The three dailies were among 10 that were sold in the third quarter, bringing the total for the year to 42 with combined dollar value of nearly $800 million. The third quarter also saw a number of companies make strategic acquisitions of non-dailies to strengthen operations in their markets.

Dirks, Van Essen & Murray expects several more significant transactions to occur before year-end that could make 2004 the most active year since the onset of the recession.

The company formed by Sandler is called HarborPoint Media, and will be run by Michael Redding, a former executive with the Daytona Beach (FL) News-Journal and at various newspapers owned by Liberty Group Publishing.

In addition to the flagship daily in Leesburg, the company owns the thrice-weekly Sebring (FL) News-Sun; Arkansas dailies Hope Star and Arkadelphia Daily Siftings Herald; and the Washington Jewish Week, a paid weekly circulating in suburban Washington, D.C. communities.

The investors said they planned to "expand HarborPoint through selective future acquisitions." Over the past two years, private equity firms have made investments in newspapers in a number of deals with total value of approximately $2.5 billion, including the recapitalization of Freedom Communications in 2003.

HarborPoint acquired its newspapers from the Better Built Group, operated by Rupert Phillips, who owned the company with his partner Clint Daws.

Phillips, an industry veteran, built the group through acquisitions primarily over the past decade. He acquired Leesburg in 1995, Arkadelphia in 1999 and Sebring in 2000. He had owned the Hope daily much longer.