Advance Local | 4 Times Square |11

th
Floor | New York, NY 10036 | 212.286.7872




June 19, 2014


I originally planned to write a mid-year update on all the progress weve made
since January but that would have resulted in a multi-page document that would have
taken way too long to read. So heres a short note instead about everything our teams
have collectively accomplished in the past few weeks, which is indicative of the success
were achieving and the momentum we are building.

We continue to grow our digital audience and revenues by delivering good
products and services to our readers and advertisers while engaging aggressively with
new and traditional competitors.

Our digital audience growth has been extraordinary. Advance Local sites grew 43
percent year-over-year in our comScore audience in April and 37 percent in May -- and
now rank #9 nationally among comScores General News sites (which include Yahoo
News, NBC News and CNN). OregonLive.com achieved 40 percent year-over-year
audience growth in May. And NJ.com broke 100 million page views in May for the fifth
straight month, according to Adobe.

This audience growth has been accompanied by well-deserved recognition for
outstanding local journalism.

NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune was the co-winner of two of the most
prestigious awards in electronic journalism: a Peabody Award and an Edward R. Murrow
Award which are equivalent to the Pulitzer Prizes in the TV and radio world -- for its
ground-breaking Louisiana Purchased investigative series with WVUE, the local FOX
TV affiliate. The Peabody judges, who had never honored a newspaper-TV partnership
before -- had this to say about the project: "Plenty big, never easy, this extensive joint
TV-newspaper investigation of Louisiana campaign financing - who gives and gets what -
put influence peddlers and buyers on notice and provided TV-news operations around the
country a template for ambitious digging." The series also won a National Headliner
Award. Kudos to Jim Amoss, lead reporter Manuel Torres and their colleagues on this
magnificent effort.
The Oregonian Media Group won the Pulitzer Prize for its editorial writing about
Oregon's problem-plagued Public Employee Retirement System. The Pulitzer judges
complimented Erik Lukens and his editorial staff for lucid editorials that explain the
urgent but complex issue of rising pension costs, notably engaging readers and driving
home the link between necessary solutions and their impact on everyday lives. And if
that werent impressive enough, investigative reporter Les Zaitz was a Pulitzer finalist for

Advance Local | 4 Times Square |11
th
Floor | New York, NY 10036 | 212.286.7872
his chilling narratives that, at personal risk to him and his sources, revealed how lethal
Mexican drug cartels infiltrated Oregon and other regions of the country.
Chris Baxter of The Star-Ledger and soon NJ Advance Media, won the national
Livingston Award for local reporting, which honors the most talented young journalists
in the country under the age of 35 for their exceptional work. Chris was honored for his
investigation of outrageous spending practices at taxpayer-financed private schools in
New Jersey for students with disabilities. The Star-Ledger also won four regional
Emmys this year for its fabulous video productions.
The MLive Media Group won 21 first-place awards from the Michigan
Associated Press Media Editors, blowing away its competition for the third year in a row.
And for the second straight year, Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard won more New
York State Associated Press Association awards, 23 in total, than anyone in its division.
Thanks to the great work of our sales teams, nearly all of our local markets are
generating significant year-over-year growth in digital revenue, meeting the complex
needs of advertisers like never before.

Leading the way is the PA Media Group, which has grown digital revenues by 66
percent over 2013. Our team in Harrisburg is seeing digital revenue growth in all
categories including automotive (50 percent over budget), real estate (102 percent over
budget) and retail (36 percent over budget). One of their most recent victories was a
massive sale to an advertiser that included display targeting, video, mobile, search engine
marketing, call tracking, proxy sites, Google analytics, lead generation forms, conversion
tracking and yes -- pixel implementation (which I had to ask them to explain to me).

Also breaking new ground is the Syracuse Media Group, which has increased
digital revenues by 36 percent this year including 68 percent in automotive. The MLive
Media Group and NJ Advance Media are seeing double-digit digital revenue gains as
well. In fact, the MLive Media Group, which was our first market to implement a
digitally focused strategy, has grown its digital revenues by 190 percent since 2011.

Other notable news since the beginning of May includes:

We hired our 1,400
th
employee since launching our eight new companies, which
remain, by far, the largest content and sales organizations in their respective markets.

Our membership loyalty programs continue to pick up steam in our two beta
markets, Michigan and Portland, and more than 110,000 consumers have now signed up
for our community events, contests and premium experiences.

Weve launched new training, recruitment and career development initiatives,
including a major expansion of our online learning center, Advance University. And
weve welcomed our first class of 21 talented summer interns, many of whom we hope
will be a part of our future.

Advance Local | 4 Times Square |11
th
Floor | New York, NY 10036 | 212.286.7872
Advance Digital rolled out more new products and services and won the
Microsoft Digital Advertising Partner of the Year award, the first time a Microsoft
partner has won this honor two years in a row.

And our colleagues at Advance Central Services, locally and nationally, continue
to offer stellar levels of support.

In the coming months, we look forward to celebrating more big wins. In the
meantime, well continue to stay focused on the changing needs of our readers and
advertisers while experimenting with new approaches to audience and advertiser
engagement. Well learn from our successes as well as from our mistakes -- and
innovate as fast as we see our competitive landscape evolving. Above all, well keep
building new cultures at our new companies that embrace creativity and collaboration as
we improve our performance and refine our vision together of what a sustainable,
thriving future looks like.

Thank you again for your commitment, hard work and dedication as we move
forward.


Sincerely,

Randy Siegel