Enterprise-Sun

Last updated
Enterprise-Sun
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Community Newspaper Company
PublisherAsa Cole
EditorJon Towne
FoundedSeptember 4, 1889 (1889-09-04), as Daily Enterprise
Ceased publicationSeptember 14, 1995 (1995-09-14) (converted to weeklies)
Headquarters230 Maple Street,
Marlborough, Massachusetts 01752, United States
Circulation 6,000 in 1995 [1]
OCLC number 34945395

The Enterprise-Sun, and its predecessors, the Hudson Daily Sun and Marlboro Enterprise, were daily newspapers covering the city of Marlborough and adjoining town of Hudson, both in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

Contents

The combined paper ended in 1995, replaced by two weekly newspapers—the Marlborough Enterprise and Hudson Sun—and the west edition of The MetroWest Daily News , all of which are owned by Community Newspaper Company, now part of GateHouse Media.

History

Thomas Hayden began publishing the Daily Enterprise in 1889, one year after beginning it as a weekly. Across the town line, the Hudson Daily Sun was founded by William H. Murphy in 1902. The Marlborough paper went through minor name changes, adding and dropping the words "Marlboro" and "Daily" in its name, in its century of publication. [2]

Enterprise owners Dustin Lucier and Charles H. Toby bought the Daily Sun in 1922, but the combined Marlborough newsroom continued to publish two separate newspapers until 1993. Grace Mada Lucier, Dustin's widow, sold the paper to the rival Worcester Telegram in 1969. [2]

In 1984, the papers were transferred to Beacon Communications Corporation, a chain of a dozen weekly newspapers in western Middlesex County, which was purchased that year by the family-owned Telegram. In 1986, control passed to out-of-state interests for the first time, as the Telegram was sold to Chronicle Publishing Company of San Francisco, California. [3]

In 1993, Chronicle, looking to concentrate on Worcester County, dealt the Beacon papers to Community Newspaper Company, which would soon become publisher of the dailies' most direct competitor, the Middlesex News (later to be renamed The MetroWest Daily News). [4]

Demise

Throughout the early 1990s, the Enterprise and Sun reinvented themselves in an effort to turn around declining revenues.

Up to the 1980s, both papers came out in the afternoon on weekdays; by then, they were also printing Saturday morning editions. Under the Telegram's ownership, Marlborough and Hudson converted to all-morning publication July 9, 1990, echoing the Telegram's closure of its Evening Gazette sister paper in 1986. At the time, the papers' editor said the move reflected changing reader demographics and would allow for better coverage of state and business news. [5]

Shortly after being acquired by CNC, the papers were merged into a single Enterprise-Sun in 1993. [1] Later that year, only three years after touting increased space for state news, the paper's new editor dropped the Associated Press wire and began touting "All Local News" as a way to differentiate the Enterprise-Sun from its competitors. [6]

Despite these efforts, CNC closed the Enterprise-Sun in September 1995, reassigning its staff to the Middlesex News and the new weeklies. Today the daily newspapers' names survive on the nameplates of weeklies published from CNC's Marlborough office, but most Marlborough and Hudson crime and political news appears first in The MetroWest Daily News, which shares an office and some staff with the weeklies, and publishes a separate edition for the Marlborough area.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MetroWest</span> Region west of Boston and east of Worcester, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts

MetroWest is a cluster of cities and towns lying west of Boston and east of Worcester, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The name was coined in the 1980s by a local newspaper.

The MetroWest Daily News is an American daily newspaper published in Framingham, Massachusetts, serving the MetroWest region of suburban Boston. The newspaper is owned by Gannett.

<i>Telegram & Gazette</i> Newspaper in Worcester, Massachusetts

The Telegram & Gazette is the only daily newspaper of Worcester, Massachusetts. The paper, headquartered at 100 Front Street and known locally as the Telegram or the T & G, offers coverage of all of Worcester County, as well as surrounding areas of the western suburbs of Boston, Western Massachusetts, and several towns in Windham County in northeastern Connecticut.

Community Newspaper Company, or CNC, was the largest publisher of weekly newspapers in eastern Massachusetts in the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century. It also published several daily newspapers in Greater Boston.

The Sentinel & Enterprise is a morning daily newspaper published in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, with a satellite news bureau in Leominster, Massachusetts. The newspaper covers local news in Fitchburg, Leominster and several nearby towns in northern Worcester County and northwest Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It is owned by MediaNews Group of Colorado., which is owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital.

Nashoba Publishing is a weekly newspaper company in the far northwest suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. It is operated by MediaNews Group in common with sister papers the Lowell Sun and Sentinel & Enterprise.

The Gardner News is a daily newspaper serving seven cities and towns in northwest Worcester County, Massachusetts. In addition to the city of Gardner, where it is headquartered, it also covers the rural towns of Ashburnham, Hubbardston, Phillipston, Templeton, Westminster, and Winchendon, Massachusetts.

<i>Holyoke Transcript-Telegram</i>

The Holyoke Transcript-Telegram, or T‑T, was an afternoon daily newspaper covering the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts, United States, and adjacent portions of Hampden County and Hampshire County.

Alta Group Newspapers Inc. was a newspaper publisher in the northeastern United States, overseeing three daily newspapers and one weekly newspaper before being bought and broken up by Community Newspaper Company in 1996.

The Milford Daily News is an American daily newspaper covering Milford, Massachusetts, and several nearby towns in Norfolk and Worcester counties.

The Daily News Transcript was a five-day afternoon daily newspaper in Norwood, Massachusetts, U.S., covering the Neponset Valley of Norfolk County, Massachusetts. The Transcript was originally published in Dedham, and also covered Walpole and Westwood.

The Daily News Tribune was an afternoon daily newspaper in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States, covering that city and the neighboring city of Newton.

News-Transcript Group, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, United States, was a newspaper publisher in eastern Massachusetts, overseeing three daily newspapers and several weekly newspapers before being bought by Fidelity Investments in 1995 and dissolved into Community Newspaper Company the next year.

Tab Communications Inc., based first in Newton, Massachusetts, United States, then in nearby Needham, was a weekly newspaper publisher in Greater Boston before being bought by Fidelity Investments in 1992 and dissolved into Community Newspaper Company in 1996.

Beacon Communications Corp. was a newspaper publisher in Acton, Massachusetts, United States, operating a dozen weekly newspapers as well as daily newspapers in Hudson and Marlborough, Massachusetts. It was bought by Fidelity Investments in 1993 and incorporated into Community Newspaper Company, Massachusetts' largest weekly newspaper publisher, now owned by GateHouse Media.

References

  1. 1 2 Klarfeld, Jon (September 8, 1995). "Media Watch: A Local Newspaper Has No Substitute". Boston Herald.
  2. 1 2 Frain, Mary (September 3, 1989). "Marlboro Enterprise is 100". Telegram & Gazette. Worcester, Mass. p. B1.
  3. Tolman, Lynne (February 16, 1989). "Beacon Under Owner's Review; 12 Are 'Relieved of Responsibilities'". Telegram & Gazette. Worcester, Mass. p. C27.
  4. Donker, Peter P. (May 28, 1993). "T&G Parent Sells Beacon Newspapers". Telegram & Gazette. Worcester, Mass.
  5. "Enterprise, Sun Going to A.M. Format". Telegram & Gazette. Worcester, Mass. June 12, 1990.
  6. Barker, Kim (July 1993). "No Outside Distractions". American Journalism Review.