Memorial Press Group

Last updated
Memorial Press Group
Industry Newspapers
Fate Bought, then dissolved
Successor Community Newspaper Company
Founded 1822, as Old Colony Memorial
Defunct October 1, 2006
Headquarters 9 Long Pond Road, Plymouth, Massachusetts 02360
United States
Products Several weekly newspapers along the Massachusetts South Shore
Number of employees
 2004: 135
Parent Prescott Publishing, 1979-1998
Enterprise NewsMedia, 1998-2006
GateHouse Media, 2006

Memorial Press Group, based in Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States, was a chain of weekly newspapers along the South Shore near Boston, Massachusetts. Long owned by The Patriot Ledger in nearby Quincy, MPG and its daily parent were sold to GateHouse Media in 2006.

Plymouth, Massachusetts Town in Massachusetts, United States

Plymouth is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. The town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklore, and culture, and is known as "America's Hometown." Plymouth was the site of the colony founded in 1620 by the Mayflower Pilgrims, where New England was first established. It is the oldest municipality in New England and one of the oldest in the United States. The town has served as the location of several prominent events, one of the more notable being the First Thanksgiving feast. Plymouth served as the capital of Plymouth Colony from its founding in 1620 until the colony's merger with the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691. It is named after Plymouth, England where the Mayflower set sail for America.

A weekly newspaper is a general-news publication that is published once or twice a week.

South Shore (Massachusetts) Region of Massachusetts in the United States

The South Shore of Massachusetts is a geographic region stretching south and east from Boston toward Cape Cod along the shores of Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay. It is subject to varying descriptions including municipalities in eastern Norfolk and Plymouth counties.

Contents

Today, several former MPG papers still publish as part of Community Newspaper Company, purchased by GateHouse at the same time. Many of the others were folded into former competitors published by CNC.

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.

History

The Old Colony Memorial , which claims the title of oldest weekly newspaper in New England, was founded in 1822 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Memorial had become the flagship of a nine-paper chain stretching from Plymouth north to the Boston suburbs by the turn of the 21st century. [1]

Old Colony Memorial (newspaper)

The Old Colony Memorial (est.1822) is a semiweekly newspaper published in Plymouth, Massachusetts. GateHouse Media owns the paper; previous owners include the George W. Prescott Publishing Co. and the Memorial Press Group.

New England Region of the United States

New England is a region composed of six states of the northeastern United States: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north, respectively. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Boston is New England's largest city as well as the capital of Massachusetts. The largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston with nearly a third of the entire region's population, which also includes Worcester, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island.

Boston Capital city of Massachusetts, United States

Boston is the capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city proper covers 48 square miles (124 km2) with an estimated population of 685,094 in 2017, making it also the most populous city in New England. Boston is the seat of Suffolk County as well, although the county government was disbanded on July 1, 1999. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 4.8 million people in 2016 and ranking as the tenth-largest such area in the country. As a combined statistical area (CSA), this wider commuting region is home to some 8.2 million people, making it the sixth-largest in the United States.

Dailies

K. Prescott Low, whose family had published The Patriot Ledger for a century, purchased MPG in 1979 and incorporated it into the privately owned George W. Prescott Publishing Company. Thirty years later, however, in 1997, Low found that "mega-players competing with us" made family ownership of the Ledger and MPG uneconomic, and sought to sell them. [2]

A buyer quickly emerged: James F. Plugh, owner of The Enterprise , the Brockton daily newspaper that competed with the Ledger and several MPG papers. Plugh's Newspaper Media LLC, later renamed Enterprise NewsMedia, bought the Prescott Publishing for an estimated US$60 to US$70 million. [3]

<i>The Enterprise</i> (Brockton)

The Enterprise is an afternoon daily newspaper published in Brockton, Massachusetts. It is considered a newspaper of record for Brockton and nearby towns in northern Bristol and Plymouth counties, and southern Norfolk County.

Brockton, Massachusetts City in Massachusetts

Brockton is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; the population was 95,314 in the 2015 Census. Brockton, along with Plymouth, are the county seats of Plymouth County. Brockton is the seventh largest city in Massachusetts and is sometimes referred to as the "City of Champions", due to the success of native boxers Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler, as well as its successful Brockton High School sports programs. Two of the villages within the city are Montello and Campello, both have the distinction of having their own MBTA Commuter Rail Stations and post offices. Campello is the smallest neighborhood in the city, but also the most populous. Brockton hosts a baseball team, the Brockton Rox. Brockton is one of the windiest cities in the United States, with an average wind speed of 14.3 mph.

Toward the end of Plugh's ownership of MPG, the company began expanding. In 2005, MPG purchased the Call Group of three weeklies in the Taunton area, as well as the Norwood Bulletin. A year later, Plugh purchased Associated and Independent Newspapers, an independent chain of 12 weeklies in the suburbs around Brockton. [4]

Taunton, Massachusetts City in Massachusetts, United States

Taunton is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the seat of Bristol County. Taunton is situated on the Taunton River which winds its way through the city on its way to Mount Hope Bay, 10 miles (16 km) to the south. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 55,874. Thomas Hoye Jr. is the current mayor of Taunton, and has held the position since 2012.

GateHouse

Liberty Publishing purchased Enterprise NewsMedia in 2006 as part of a mammoth deal that also included Community Newspaper Company—then owned by the Boston Herald —and a new name for the parent company, GateHouse Media. [5]

Under GateHouse, MPG was gradually folded into CNC's South Unit. In a reorganization announced October 1, 2006, MPG's executives were reassigned to CNC positions and a handful of newspapers were closed to eliminate competition within the merged company. Additionally, MPG papers that had been printed in tabloid format became broadsheets and would now be printed at CNC presses. [6]

Properties

At the time of its incorporation into CNC in 2006, Mariner Group consisted of the following weeklies:

Except where noted, these titles are still published by CNC. The papers marked "Associated" were added to MPG in 2006 after its purchase of Associated and Independent Newspapers. The "Call Group" papers were purchased in 2005.

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<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.

Plymouth County, Massachusetts County in the United States

Plymouth County is a county in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2010 census, the population was 494,919. Its county seats are Plymouth and Brockton. In 1685 the County was created by the Plymouth General Court, the legislature of Plymouth Colony, predating its annexation by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Pembroke, Massachusetts Town in Massachusetts, United States

Pembroke is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,837 at the 2010 census.

The MetroWest Daily News is an American daily newspaper published in Framingham, Massachusetts, serving the MetroWest region of suburban Boston. The newspaper is part of GateHouse New England, a division of GateHouse Media.

Massachusettss 9th congressional district

Massachusetts's 9th congressional district is located in eastern Massachusetts. It is represented by Democrat William R. Keating.

Massachusettss 11th congressional district

Massachusetts Congressional District 11 is an obsolete congressional district in eastern Massachusetts. It was eliminated in 1993 after the 1990 U.S. Census. Its last Congressman was Brian Donnelly; its most notable were John Quincy Adams following his term as president, eventual president John F. Kennedy and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill.

Massachusettss 14th congressional district

Massachusetts's 14th congressional district is an obsolete district which was in eastern Massachusetts and the Maine District. It was eliminated in 1963 after the 1960 U.S. Census. Its last Congressman was Joseph William Martin, Jr., who was redistricted into the tenth district.

The Patriot Ledger is a daily morning newspaper printed in Quincy, Massachusetts, that serves the South Shore. It publishes Monday through Saturday.

Southeastern Massachusetts Region of Massachusetts in the United States

Southeastern Massachusetts consists of those portions of Massachusetts that are, by their proximity, economically and culturally linked to Providence, Rhode Island as well as Boston. Despite the location of Cape Cod and the islands to its south, which are the southeasternmost parts of the state, they are not always grouped in this designation. At its broadest definition, it includes all of Massachusetts south of Boston and southeast of Worcester.

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.

Suburban World Newspapers, based in Needham, Massachusetts, United States, was a privately owned publisher of seven weekly newspapers in the suburbs west of Boston in the 1980s and 1990s.

Cape Cod Publishing Company, based in Orleans, Massachusetts, United States, was a publisher of weekly newspapers in the 1990s. It was created by Fidelity Investments as a holding company for newspapers acquired on Cape Cod, and eventually folded into Fidelity's Community Newspaper Company. CNC is now owned by GateHouse Media.

Mariner Group, based in Marshfield, Massachusetts, United States, was a chain of weekly newspapers in the suburban South Shore near Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1972 with one paper, the Marshfield Mariner, the group was sold in 1989 to Capital Cities/ABC and again in 1995 to Fidelity Investments, which dissolved it into Community Newspaper Company a few months later.

Brockton Area Transit Authority

Brockton Area Transit Authority (BAT) is a public, non-profit organization in Massachusetts, charged with providing public transportation to the Brockton area, consisting of the city of Brockton and the adjoining towns of Abington, Avon, Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, Easton, Stoughton, Canton, West Bridgewater and Whitman.

References

  1. ↑ Haley, Sean. "Plymouth Weekly Loses 180-Year Distinction". The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.), page 30, September 21, 2002.
  2. ↑ Stewart, Colin. "Ledger Owner Explains Decision". The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.), page 21, May 24, 1997.
  3. ↑ Blanton, Kimberly. "Low Family Will Sell Patriot Ledger to the Owners of Brockton Enterprise". The Boston Globe, October 4, 1997.
  4. ↑ Noyes, Jesse. "Chain Buys Dozen Mass. Papers". Boston Herald, page 25, January 6, 2006.
  5. ↑ Gatlin, Greg. "Herald to Sell Suburban Papers". Boston Herald, May 6, 2006.
  6. ↑ "Several Weeklies Ledger Parent Owns to See Change". The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.), page 34, September 14, 2006.
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