Newcastle Investment Corp., a real estate investment trust, acquired Dow Jones’ Local Media Group from News Corp. for $87 million last week.While that may seem like a strange buyer for the Local Media Group, which operates 33 local publications, including 8 daily and 15 weekly newspapers, in 7 states, Newcastle will actually hand off operational management to their publishing arm GateHouse Media. Both Newcastle and GateHouse are owned by parent company Fortress Investment Group. GateHouse currently owns and operates more than 400 community publications and approximately 350 related websites.Newcastle bought the Local Media Group from News Corp with a total equity investment of $54 million and financed the remainder of the purchase price with $33 million of debt. Newcastle also owns approximately 52% of GateHouse’s $1.2 billion of debt, and has plans to restructure GateHouse in order to convert its debt position into equity.The sale by News Corp points to an increasing shift in the company’s focus and portfolio, with Chief Executive Robert Thomson saying via a press release, “We are confident that the papers will prosper under the new owners, but they were not strategically consistent with the emerging portfolio of the new News.”Waller Capital Partners, a leading independent investment bank focused on the telecommunications, media and technology sectors, advised Dow Jones on the sale of the Local Media Group.