DIXON – Shaw Media, owner of the Northwest Herald, has purchased Suburban Life publications and affiliated operations from GateHouse Media. The purchase was effective Monday.

Suburban Life, based in Downers Grove, is a group of 22 weekly newspapers in Chicago’s western suburbs. Suburban Life distributes in DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Will and Cook counties. The Suburban Life publications include the Elmhurst Press, Wheaton Leader, Downers Grove Reporter, Berwyn Life, as well as other titles, and the website mysuburbanlife.com.

In markets where Dixon-based Shaw Media currently operates, Shaw acquired Farmside in southwestern McHenry County, and the St. Charles Republican, the Batavia Republican and the Geneva Republican, all in Kane County.