Five media companies have expressed interest in buying some or all of the daily and weekly Connecticut newspapers put on the auction block by Journal Register Publishing Co., the Associated Press reported Monday.

"Just as with any negotiation that we have with any business, we don't put the specifics of who we're discussing with out on the table until such time that it is appropriate," Joan McDonald, Connecticut's economic development commissioner, told the AP after a private meeting.

The state's Department of Economic and Community Development sent letters at the beginning of December to 16 media companies detailing Journal Register's plans to close daily newspapers The Herald (New Britain, Conn.) and The Bristol Press, as well as 11 weeklies, if a buyer does not come forward by January 12, the AP reported in an article posted by the Hartford Courant.

Journal Register, based in Pennsylvania, also hired a company in New Mexico to help locate possible buyers, according to the AP.

McDonald said her department may be able to assist buyers financially or technologically, such as low interest loans or training, as it does with any business.