Maine Media Hopes to Complete Purchase of Blethen Newspapers in Early 2009

Maine Media Investments, LLC announced today that it will be unable to finalize its purchase of Blethen Maine Newspapers (BMN) in 2008 but remains confident that the sale will be completed early next year.

Despite the best efforts of everyone involved, the financing package could not be arranged in time to complete the purchase before the target year-end close date, said Richard L. Connor, the leader of the Maine Media Investments, LLC group.

"All of us involved in this process, my team and the Blethen Maine team, knew the holidays would interrupt our plans to complete the purchase of the newspaper company," said Connor.  "When Maine weather suddenly threw an ice storm and a blizzard into the mix, the combination of issues to resolve became more difficult in our anticipated time frame.

"We appreciate the spirit of cooperation from the Blethen organization and that of all of the employees of all the newspapers to help us work on completing the sale," he said.  "We'll all celebrate the holidays and then immediately resume our work."

Frank Blethen, Chairman of BMN, lauded the Maine Media group for its perseverance in the face of the extremely difficult credit markets.  Blethen said that he and his family will continue working closely with Maine Media "because we believe that a sale to this locally-backed investor group would be the best outcome both for the Maine communities we serve and for our valued employees."

Maine Media includes some of Maine's best known and highly respected figures.  It is led by former Maine Senator and Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and his long-time friends and business associates Michael Liberty and Robert Baldacci of Portland, along with Richard L. Connor, a Bangor native with 40 years of experience owning and operating newspapers who will serve as a senior operating partner.

The BMN assets include three Maine daily newspapers: Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Kennebec Journal (Augusta) and Morning Sentinel (Waterville). The Mainetoday.com online site and a number of non-daily print publications published by BMN are also included in the transaction.