MISHAWAKA, Ind. (AP) — Schurz Communications says it's selling its publishing division, including 20 newspapers in five states, to GateHouse Media LLC.

Indiana-based Schurz, which owns the South Bend Tribune and The Herald-Times in Bloomington announced the deal Monday. Terms were not disclosed.

The family-owned company says New York-based GateHouse will assume ownership during the first quarter of the year. GateHouse currently owns 145 daily newspapers

The Tribune reports employees were told Monday that Schurz executives and board members decided GateHouse would offer a scale of operations that can make the newspapers more competitive and successful in the long term.

The newspapers being sold include The Petoskey (Michigan) News-Review, The American News in South Dakota and The Herald-Mail in Maryland.

Schutz says it will continue investing in cloud and managed IT services and broadband operations.