Heartland Publications, LLC was formed in May 2004 with a single acquisition of 24 publications from the CNHI newspaper group. Currently owning fifty paid publications, we believe in the future of community newspapers and continue to seek to grow in terms of both quality of our products and quantity of our holdings. Our publications epitomize the meaning of community journalism as they are all located in medium and small sized markets where quality local news is the singular important component of our focus. We believe that our mission is to provide the highest quality subscriber and advertiser vehicles available within our local markets. Property locations are in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia and Georgia.

Michael Bush has served as Chief Executive Office and President of Heartland Publications, LLC since February 2005.

Bush has worked as Vice President/Operations for Journal Register. Co and MediaNews prior to assuming this position. He also served in corporate advertising management positions for Morris Newspapers, Inc. and Park Communications, as well as publisher and advertising director.

He is a graduate of Hobart College and studied journalism and business administration at graduate schools in Oregon and Arizona. At family owned newspapers, early in his twenty-five year career, he served in a variety of capacities including responsibilities in most newspaper departments.

Active in various leadership capacities in community and industry organizations, a former New Mexico Space Commissioner, Bush is married to Amy Bush, a registered nurse, who is enrolled in a Master's Program in Oncology at the Yale School of Nursing. He is the father of two children, Wayne and Molly. An avid reader and amateur historian, Bush also has two Siberian Huskies, Klondike and Monchie.

Gary Lawrence joined Heartland Publications, LLC in May 2005 as Chief Operating Officer of the Southern Division. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of Heartland.

A 38 year veteran of the newspaper industry, Lawrence has served as Group Publisher, Corporate Regional Vice President, Publisher and various advertising and circulation management positions with newspaper companies Journal Register, Morris, McClatchy, and Scripps.

A native of Hartselle, Alabama, Lawrence attended the University of Alabama, and graduated with a degree in Business from Roger Williams University. He completed post graduate work with a Para Legal Certification from Roger Williams University and studied Masters level subjects in Mass Communications at Middle Tennessee State University.

Lawrence is married to his wife of 30 years, Ellen. They have three children, Kevin, Joel and Lindsay and seven grandchildren, Reid, Elijah, Macie, Kalistah, Jacob, Katie and Ella.

John W. Adams II is a native of northern New Jersey. He has spent the past twenty-five years as a financial executive with companies such as The Pepsi-Cola Company and The Walt Disney Company and has broad experience in business and strategic planning; M&A; debt financing and equity placements; shareholder and Board communication; and building and leading global financial and IT teams. He has been a Chief Financial Officer for a number of global technology companies in California and England and lived in Oxford, England. His CFO roles ranged from taking a pre-IPO internet infrastructure company public (NASDAQ listed); to assisting in turning around a video game software publisher (NASDAQ listed); to assisting in the repositioning of a global agricultural biotechnology company based in Oxford, England (FTSE listed); and to assisting a privately held business services and software company prepare for public offering. John currently is CEO/Owner of Cametoid Technologies in Manchester, CT – Cametoid Technologies specializes in environmentally-friendly, high-quality aluminum protective coatings for global companies in the aerospace, marine, energy, utilities and manufacturing industries. He also consults for the Board of Directors of SweetSpringSalmon llc – a Seattle based fresh water farmed Salmon business where he is involved in long range financial and strategic planning. He is also on the Board of Directors of AQUAS, a non-profit organization that assists underprivileged high-school scholar athletes in securing scholarships and college educations.

John played baseball for more than 20 years including at Villanova where he started the Villanova Baseball Club and with the Millburn Atlantics – a semi-professional team in New Jersey. He loves the outdoors and enjoys running and has completed marathons in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He is also the author of Entre Nous Tell Them While They’re Here which was published in 2007.

John received his undergraduate degree in Economics from Villanova University and received his MBA in Finance & Marketing from The Anderson School at UCLA. John and his wife Kirsten live in Madison CT with their two children, Summer (age 9) and John W. Adams III ("Trey") (age 7).