Dixon, Ill. — Shaw Media, owner of the Newton Daily News and based in Dixon, Ill., has purchased Suburban Life publications and affiliated operations from GateHouse Media. The purchase is effective today.
Suburban Life, based in Downers Grove, Ill., is a group of 22 weekly newspapers in Chicago's western suburbs. Suburban Life distributes in DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Will and Cook counties. The Suburban Life publications include the Elmhurst Press, Wheaton Leader, Downers Grove Reporter, Berwyn Life, as well as other titles, and the website mysuburbanlife.com.
"We are proud to welcome Suburban Life to our growing portfolio of family-owned, community-focused media operations," said Tom Shaw, Shaw Media president and CEO. "Our ongoing commitment to excellence and growth has helped us prosper, even in the most challenging times. We are extremely excited to be returning these respected titles to their family-owned roots.”
In addition, Shaw Media has agreed to participate in adhance media, GateHouse Media's online private ad exchange, to fill unsold inventory for Shaw Media's digital properties. adhance media's private ad exchange comprises more than 500 local, hyper-local and major city newspapers and broadcast sites nationwide. By leveraging the combined scale of these sites, adhance media provides agencies and advertisers with a wider national reach with locally-targeted audiences.
Shaw Media is a 161-year-old media company with newspapers, websites, magazines and other niche publications in St. Charles, Crystal Lake, DeKalb, Grayslake, Dixon, Sterling, Princeton, and Morris, Ill., and in Newton and Creston. Shaw is the third oldest continuously owned and operated family media company in the nation.