News-Transcript Group

Last updated
News-Transcript Group
Industry Newspapers
Fate Bought, then dissolved
Successor Community Newspaper Company
Founded 1986
Defunct 1996
Headquarters 33 New York Avenue,
Framingham, Massachusetts 01701 United States
Key people
 Asa Cole, group publisher
Products Middlesex News , two other dailies, and 11 weekly newspapers
Number of employees
 1994: 460
Parent Harte-Hanks, 1985-1995
Fidelity Investments, 1995-1996

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.

Framingham, Massachusetts City in Massachusetts, United States

Framingham is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is within Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers 25 square miles (65 km2) with a population of 68,318 in 2010, making it the 14th most populous municipality in Massachusetts. As of 2017 the estimated population was 72,032. Residents voted in favor of adopting a charter to transition from a representative town meeting system to a mayor–council government in April 2017, and the municipality transitioned to city status on January 1, 2018.

Newspaper scheduled publication containing news of events, articles, features, editorials, and advertising

A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.

Massachusetts State of the United States of America

Massachusetts, officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named after the Massachusett tribe, which once inhabited the east side of the area, and is one of the original thirteen states. The capital of Massachusetts is Boston, which is also the most populous city in New England. Over 80% of Massachusetts's population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution. During the 20th century, Massachusetts's economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a global leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance, and maritime trade.

Contents

History

The group was formed in 1986 when Harte-Hanks bought Transcript Newspapers Inc. of Dedham, Massachusetts, merging it with the Middlesex News . Later that year, Harte-Hanks bought Century Newspapers and combined its operations with News-Transcript. In the mid-1990s, as Harte-Hanks divested its newspaper holdings, the company announced in 1994 that it would sell the 14-newspaper chain to Fidelity Investments. [1]

Dedham, Massachusetts Town in Massachusetts, United States

DedhamDED-əm is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,729 at the 2010 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest by Westwood, and on the southeast by Canton. The town was first settled by Europeans in 1635.

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.

Fidelity Investments Inc., commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is a multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts.

The purchase price was not disclosed, but was estimated at US$30 million to US$40 million. When the sale was complete in 1995, Fidelity made News-Transcript a division of Community Newspaper Company, which became the second-largest circulation publisher in Massachusetts, with 766,000 weekly copies. [2]

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.

News-Transcript—known within CNC as Middlesex Community Newspapers—was dissolved in early 1996, when CNC realigned its operating units by geography, assigning the News-Transcript papers to new Metro, Northwest and West units. [3]

Northeast Group

Harte-Hanks bought the Middlesex News in 1972, establishing its "Northeast Group" of newspapers, which included three Town Crier weeklies in towns neighboring the News' core coverage area of Framingham and Natick, Massachusetts. The News, a 40,000-circulation daily, gave Harte-Hanks—and later CNC—a mid-sized daily newspaper to serve as a flagship for scattered weeklies and smaller dailies.

Natick, Massachusetts Town in Massachusetts, United States

Natick is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Natick is near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 32,786 at the 2010 census. Only 17 miles (27 km) west of Boston, Natick is considered part of the Greater Boston area. The center of population of Massachusetts in 2000 was in Natick. A 2014 census shows Natick's population was 34,230. This means between 2010 and 2014 Natick grew 3.6%, making it one of the fastest-growing towns in the Boston area.

Northeast Group added the 79-year-old Wellesley Townsman October 1, 1985, bought from owner Robert Linnell. The purchase was part of a push into the affluent suburb by the Middlesex News, which also debuted a new edition of the daily paper there. [4]

<i>The Wellesley Townsman</i>

The Wellesley Townsman is a paid weekly, local newspaper in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It is currently owned by GateHouse Media.

Transcript Newspapers Inc.

The publisher of two smaller daily newspapers, Transcript Newspapers Inc. was owned for years by Wisconsin publisher Post Corporation. The papers' typesetters organized a long and at times violent strike in 1980, alleging unfair labor practices. Eleven reporters and editors at the Waltham paper were fired for refusing to cross a picket line; in all, about 60 Transcript employees were laid off for striking. [5]

Between August 1984 and March 1986, the company was sold four times: to Gillett Communications in 1984; then to Thomson Newspapers that December; in April 1985 to William Dean Singleton (head of MediaNews Group) [6] —and eventually, in 1986, to Harte-Hanks. [7]

Century Newspapers

Harte-Hanks' purchase of Century Newspapers in mid-1986 added six weeklies to News-Transcript Group, in suburbs north and west of Boston. [8] Two of the newspapers remain part of Community Newspaper Company today: The Arlington Advocate and The Winchester Star.

By the time Fidelity bought the newspapers, the Belmont Citizen and Belmont Herald had merged, the Watertown Sun had closed, and the Newton Transcript had merged with Northeast Group's Newton Graphic.

The merger of the two Belmont papers was controversial. They had competed for 50 years when Century, publisher of the Citizen, bought the less newsy Herald from publisher John Martin Jr. in early 1986. The Herald's editor, Robert Mead, urged Belmont residents to boycott his former paper, as the two "competitors" began collaborating their coverage and sharing staff, although initially they continued to publish separate editions. [9]

Properties

At the time of its sale to CNC, News-Transcript Group consisted of three daily and 11 weekly newspapers, all in Massachusetts (the papers' owners before 1986 are listed in parentheses): [1]

All of these newspapers except the Newton Graphic and Needham Chronicle are still published by Community Newspaper Company, now a division of GateHouse Media, although the dailies' and Roslindale paper's names have changed. The Newton paper (itself the product of a merger) was merged with CNC's Newton Tab after the News-Transcript sale.

Related Research Articles

Harte Hanks

Harte Hanks is an American marketing services company headquartered in Uptown San Antonio, Texas. It is a marketing services firm specializing in multi-channel marketing solutions. Harte Hanks offers end-to-end marketing services including consulting, strategic assessment, data, analytics, digital, social, mobile, print, direct mail and contact center.

The Daily Times Chronicle is a family-owned five-day daily newspaper published in Woburn, Massachusetts, with separate daily editions and associated weekly newspapers covering several towns along Massachusetts Route 128 in eastern Middlesex County.

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.

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.

North Shore Weeklies Inc., based in Ipswich, Massachusetts, United States, was a newspaper publisher on Massachusetts' North Shore and one of the original subsidiaries of Community Newspaper Company (CNC), now the largest publisher of weeklies in Massachusetts.

Community Weeklies Inc., based in Woburn, Massachusetts, United States, founded three weekly newspapers in the suburbs north of Boston before being bought by Fidelity Investments in 1994 and dissolved into Community Newspaper Company two years later.

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.

Bay State Newspaper Company, based in Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, was a publisher of weekly newspapers in suburbs north of Boston. It was formed in 1991 by Fidelity Investments after it bought Dole Publishing from its longtime owner, William P. Dole.

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.

Norfolk Newspaper Company, based in Mansfield, Massachusetts, United States, founded three weekly newspapers in the suburbs south of Boston before being bought by Fidelity Investments in 1990 and dissolved into Community Newspaper Company six years later.

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.

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.

The Brookline TAB is a local newspaper that primarily serves the town of Brookline, Massachusetts along with the surrounding area of Norfolk County, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1979 and is published weekly on Thursdays. The newspaper is owned by GateHouse Media and the circulation is estimated to be 15,500 copies. Its headquarters are located on 1 Speen St., Framingham, MA.

References

  1. 1 2 "Middlesex News Changing Owners". Telegram & Gazette (Worcester, Mass.), November 23, 1994.
  2. ↑ Nutile, Tom. "Fidelity Unit Buys Harte-Hanks Papers". Boston Herald, page 18, April 1, 1995.
  3. ↑ Cassidy, Tina. "Community Newspaper Realigns Properties". The Boston Globe, January 12, 1996.
  4. ↑ Sleeper, Peter B. "Read All About It: 4 Newspapers Woo Wellesley -- and Ad Dollars". The Boston Globe, page 21, October 23, 1985.
  5. ↑ "Employees Fired in Newspaper Strike". The Boston Globe, page 1, July 26, 1980.
  6. ↑ Fox, Wendy. "Transcript Newspapers Sold for Third Time in 8 Months". The Boston Globe, p. 32, April 23, 1985.
  7. ↑ Adams, Jane Meredith. "Harte-Hanks Acquires Transcript Group". The Boston Globe, March 14, 1986.
  8. ↑ "Newspapers Purchased". The Boston Globe, page 75, May 7, 1986.
  9. ↑ Pokorny, Brad. "Belmont: Two Weeklies or One? Some Object to Citizen's Purchase of Its Rival". The Boston Globe, page 22, March 17, 1986.
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