GateHouse Media Responds to New York Times Counterclaims
17 January 2009 - 10:48AM
PR Newswire (US)
FAIRPORT, N.Y., Jan. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GateHouse Media,
Inc. (OTC:GHSE) (BULLETIN BOARD: GHSE) announced that today, The
New York Times Company filed its Answer to GateHouse's Complaint in
the action GateHouse Media Massachusetts I, Inc. v. The New York
Times Co., in federal district court in Boston. GateHouse's lawsuit
challenges the repeated conduct of defendant's boston.com since
November 2008 in copying and displaying verbatim on boston.com's
"YourTown" websites for the Boston suburbs of Needham, Newton and
Waltham headlines and leading sentences from news articles taken
from GateHouse's local newspapers and its hyper-local websites for
each of those towns at WickedLocal.com. Boston.com has reproduced
this information without GateHouse's authorization or consent, and
has done so in a manner which confuses the public as to the
original source of the information by passing off GateHouse's
original content as its own and which completely relies on the
expertise, experience, efforts, expenditures and resources of
GateHouse. This is both copyright and trademark infringement, as
well as unfair competition. Incredibly, The New York Times now
claims that certain of GateHouse's own practices somehow qualify as
copyright infringement. These in no way involve the predatory
practice of copying a competitor's content on a daily basis to be
offered as a substitute product to consumers and advertisers in the
very same market, piggybacking on the competitor's resources.
GateHouse's President and Chief Operating Officer, Kirk Davis,
said: "By trying to equate its conduct with legitimate and
widespread linking practices which permeate the Internet, it is The
New York Times' counterclaims that threaten those established
practices as well as fair competition in online journalism. The
simple reality is that The New York Times chose to disregard these
principles with its serial copying and display of GateHouse's
original content on the boston.com "YourTown" websites, which it
has turned around and offered to readers in the same towns served
by GateHouse's WickedLocal websites. We will defend these meritless
counterclaims vigorously and consistent with controlling legal
principles of fair use." GateHouse Media, Inc., headquartered in
Fairport, New York, is one of the largest publishers of locally
based print and online media in the United States as measured by
its 92 daily publications. GateHouse Media currently serves local
audiences of more than 10 million per week across 21 states through
hundreds of community publications and local websites. GateHouse
Media is traded on the over-the-counter market under the symbol
"GHSE". For more information regarding GateHouse Media and to be
added to our email distribution list, please visit
http://www.gatehousemedia.com/. Forward-looking Statements Certain
statements in this press release may be forward looking in nature
or "forward looking statements" as defined in the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward looking
statements contained in this press release are subject to a number
of risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual
performance to differ materially from these forward looking
statements, including but not limited to the uncertainties involved
in filing, pursuing and defending the legal actions discussed in
this press release. A number of those risks, trends and
uncertainties are discussed in the company's SEC reports, including
the company's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on
Form 10-Q. Any forward looking statements in this press release
should be evaluated in light of these important risk factors.
GateHouse Media is not responsible for updating the information
contained in this press release beyond the published date, or for
changes made to this press release by wire services, Internet
service providers or other media. DATASOURCE: GateHouse Media, Inc.
CONTACT: Mark Maring, GateHouse Media Investor Relations,
+1-585-598-6874 Web Site: http://www.gatehousemedia.com/
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