Medford Daily Mercury

Last updated
Medford Daily Mercury
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Tribune Publications Inc.
PublisherDaniel J. Horgan
EditorStephen Freker
Founded1880
Ceased publication2017
Headquarters277 Commercial Street, Malden, Massachusetts 02148 Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States
Circulation 14,000 in 2003 when combined with Malden Evening News [1]
Website MaldenNews.com

The Medford Daily Mercury was an independent five-day (Monday through Friday) daily newspaper covering the city of Medford, Massachusetts.

Contents

Publisher Daniel J. Horgan owned the Daily Mercury and its sister paper, the Malden Evening News , since purchasing the Daily News-Mercury in 1996. Although Horgan restored separate titles for Medford and Malden, Massachusetts, on any given day the two newspapers looked almost identical, except for front-page stories.

History

The public face of the Medford Daily Mercury through much of the late 20th century was David Brickman, who became its publisher in 1947, bought the Malden News in 1953 and acquired the Melrose News, a former newspaper in neighboring Melrose, in 1969. Brickman was active in press associations and civic and governmental affairs—he helped campaign for Massachusetts' Open Meeting Law and served on the state Ethics Commission. [2]

Brickman, who was known to Boston-area viewers of the "Starring the Editors" television program as an outspoken regular panelist, called his final years at the helm of the three newspapers "a struggle in an antipathetic atmosphere." He sold his 75 percent interest in the papers for $1 million to Malden businessman and minority shareholder Warren H. Jackson in 1989. [3]

The move kept the paper in local hands, although Brickman had seemed ready to sell to a Rupert Murdoch-owned company, for more money, a year earlier. Reports in 1988 had Murdoch, who at the time owned the Boston Herald and WFXT-TV in nearby Boston, negotiating a price between US$ 5 million and US$ 10 million. [4]

At the time of the sale to Jackson, the three papers covered four towns—the Malden News published an edition in Everett, Massachusetts—with a reported combined circulation of 11,300. Jackson announced he would save money by combining the three papers into one edition. [3] This move created the Daily News-Mercury in 1990. [5]

Another of Jackson's cost-cutting measures was the subject of a union picket in 1994. Despite a contract that guaranteed "lifelong employment", he fired the papers' typographers. One union member complained that the Daily News-Mercury had been "in bankruptcy for the last year; they owe us more than US$ 100,000 in pension money; they haven't given us a raise in eight years". [6]

The underfunded pension later caused the sheriff's office to close the Daily News-Mercury temporarily in June 1995. [7]

In 1996, the Daily News-Mercury was bought for US$ 650,000 by its current owner, Daniel J. Horgan, a publisher of weekly newspapers in the Boston area. [5] Horgan's estate shut down both the Mercury and the Malden Evening News in January 2017, stating that the papers' advertisers were in poor financial shape themselves, leading to a domino effect that caused the papers' failure. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Boston Herald</i> US newspaper

The Boston Herald is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulitzer Prizes in its history, including four for editorial writing and three for photography before it was converted to tabloid format in 1981. The Herald was named one of the "10 Newspapers That 'Do It Right'" in 2012 by Editor & Publisher.

<i>New York Post</i> American conservative tabloid newspaper

The New York Post is an American conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The Post also operates three online sites: NYPost.com; PageSix.com, a gossip site; and Decider.com, an entertainment site.

<i>The Boston Post</i> Former daily newspaper in New England

The Boston Post was a daily newspaper in New England for over a hundred years before its final shutdown in 1956. The Post was founded in November 1831 by two prominent Boston businessmen, Charles G. Greene and William Beals.

Local Media Group, Inc., formerly Dow Jones Local Media Group and Ottaway Newspapers Inc., owned newspapers, websites and niche publications in California, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania. It was headquartered in Campbell Hall, New York, and its flagship was the Times Herald-Record, serving Middletown and other suburbs of New York City.

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.

<i>The Standard-Times</i> (New Bedford) Newspaper in New Bedford, Massachusetts

The Standard-Times, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, is the largest of three daily newspapers covering the South Coast of Massachusetts, along with The Herald News of Fall River and Taunton Daily Gazette of Taunton, Massachusetts.

<i>The Eagle-Tribune</i> Daily newspaper in Massachusetts and New Hampshire

The Eagle-Tribune is a seven-day morning daily newspaper covering the Merrimack Valley and Essex County, Massachusetts, and southern New Hampshire. It is the largest-circulation daily newspaper owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., and the lead property in a regional chain of four dailies and several weekly newspapers in Essex County and southern New Hampshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert P. Langtry</span> American politician (1860–1939)

Albert Perkins Langtry was an American newspaper editor and publisher, politician, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, and a member of the Republican Party.

The Malden Evening News was an independent five-day daily newspaper covering the city of Malden, Massachusetts.

The Gloucester Daily Times is an American daily newspaper published Monday through Saturday mornings in Gloucester, Massachusetts by Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company, a subsidiary of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. The price is $0.75.

<i>The Salem News</i> Daily newspaper in Massachusetts, US

The Salem News is an American daily newspaper serving southern Essex County, Massachusetts. Although the paper is named for the city of Salem, its offices are now in nearby Danvers, Massachusetts. The newspaper is published Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings by Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company, a subsidiary of CNHI.

The Daily News of Newburyport is an American daily newspaper covering northeastern Essex County, Massachusetts, USA. The newspaper is published Monday through Saturday mornings by North of Boston Media Group, a subsidiary of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.

The Daily Item is a six-day morning daily newspaper published in Lynn, Massachusetts, United States. In addition to its home city, The Daily Item covers the Massachusetts North Shore cities and towns of Nahant, Saugus, Swampscott, Peabody, Lynnfield, Marblehead, and circulates in several adjacent towns.

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

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.

<i>Boston Evening Traveller</i> Massachusetts daily newspaper (1845–1967)

The Boston Evening Traveller (1845–1967) was a newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts. It was a daily newspaper, with weekly and semi-weekly editions under a variety of Traveller titles. It was absorbed by the Boston Herald in 1912, and ceased publication in 1967.

References

  1. ↑ "Circulation in Local Daily Newspaper Markets" Archived 2007-05-07 at the Wayback Machine , based on Burrelle's Media Directory, 2003.
  2. ↑ "David Brickman, 82; Was Publisher of Malden, Melrose, Medford Papers". Obituary. The Boston Globe, June 19, 1992.
  3. 1 2 Mehegan, David. "Sharehold Buys Ailing Malden News". The Boston Globe, June 29, 1989.
  4. ↑ Yoo, John C. "Murdoch Unit Eyes Malden-Based Chain". The Boston Globe, July 22, 1988.
  5. 1 2 "Business Review Highlights of the Week". The Boston Globe, August 4, 1996.
  6. ↑ Lewis, Diane E. "Malden Paper Lays Off Workers". The Boston Globe, November 16, 1994.
  7. ↑ "Sheriff Reportedly Closes Newspaper". The Boston Globe, June 20, 1995.
  8. ↑ "2 Massachusetts Daily Newspapers Cease Publication - ABC News". ABC News . Archived from the original on 2017-02-09.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.