North Shore Weeklies

Last updated
North Shore Weeklies Inc.
Industry Newspapers
Fate Bought, then dissolved
Successor Community Newspaper Company
Founded 1958
Defunct 1996
Headquarters 2 Washington Street,
Ipswich, Massachusetts 01938
United States
Key people
 William S. Wasserman Jr., founder
Products Several weekly newspapers
Number of employees
 1986: 180
Parent Wasserman, 1958–1986
Fidelity Investments, 1986–1996

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.

Ipswich, Massachusetts Town in Massachusetts, United States

Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,175 at the 2010 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island (Massachusetts). A residential community with a vibrant tourism industry, the town is famous for its clams, celebrated annually at the Ipswich Chowderfest, and for Crane Beach, a barrier beach near the Crane estate. Ipswich was incorporated as a town in 1634.

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

William S. Wasserman Jr. founded the company in 1958, running it independently until selling in 1986 to a group underwritten by Fidelity Investments, which founded CNC. North Shore Weeklies was dissolved in 1996; most of its newspapers are still part of CNC, now 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.

GateHouse Media American media company

GateHouse Media Inc., a holding company for New Media Investment Group, former symbol on OTC Markets Group's OTCQB tier GHSE, is one of the largest publishers of locally based print and digital media in the United States, headquartered in the town of Perinton, New York. As of April 2018, GateHouse Media publishes 144 daily newspapers, 684 community publications, and over 569 local-market websites in 38 states. In addition to publishing content, GateHouse Media offers commercial services including a digital marketing agency (ThriveHive), event production company, and creative services.

Wasserman

Under Wasserman, who began the company with his purchase of the Amesbury News in 1958, the company gradually expanded until it included nine weekly newspapers down the seacoast toward Boston. In the 12 months ending August 31, 1986, the company made US$7.6 million in revenues and turned a profit. [1]

After selling the papers, Wasserman gave US$700,000 out of the proceeds in bonuses to his staff, distributed based on how long they had worked for the company. Some employees were given as much as US$20,000. [1]

But Wasserman could be a severe businessman, too. For 2½ years in the 1980s, he competed for readers in two North Shore towns with former employee Joseph Fenton, who bought an independent newspaper in Ipswich—home of North Shore Weeklies' main offices, at the time—in 1981. A year later, Fenton started a new paper in Georgetown, and Wasserman responded by following him there, with the Georgetown Record. Both publishers said they were being unfairly targeted by the other. [2]

Georgetown, Massachusetts Town in Massachusetts, United States

Georgetown is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,183 at the 2010 census. It was incorporated in 1838 from part of Rowley.

In 1983, Wasserman emerged the winner of the "Georgetown Newspaper War", purchasing Fenton's Ipswich Today and Georgetown Weekly. [3]

Fidelity

Robert I. Owens, a local politician who was related by marriage to the Harte side of Harte-Hanks, convinced Fidelity to help finance his purchase of North Shore Weeklies in 1986. [4] He later sold his share to Fidelity's Community Newspaper Company.

In 1992, North Shore bought the Lynn Sunday Post, a 6,100-circulation weekly it had printed for the past 15 years. The Sunday Post had been founded in Lynn in 1960. [5]

The company debuted another weekly newspaper, the Beverly Citizen, in 1995, after Ottaway Community Newspapers merged The Beverly Times into The Salem Evening News , leaving Beverly without an in-town newspaper. [6]

North Shore Weeklies was dissolved in early 1996, when CNC realigned its operating units by geography, assigning the North Shore papers, along with others, to new North Unit. [7]

Properties

At the time of its sale to Fidelity in 1986, North Shore Weeklies consisted of nine weekly newspapers, all in Essex County, Massachusetts: [1]

All of the above newspapers became part of CNC's North Unit, along with several other newspapers along and inland from the North Shore, including papers such as the Saugus Advertiser , which North Shore Weeklies purchased as a CNC subsidiary in 1991.

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Essex County, Massachusetts County in the United States

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

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North Shore Technical High School was a public application-type high school located in the city of Middleton in the U.S. state of Massachusetts under the North Shore Regional Vocational School District. It served ninth through twelfth grade students from 16 communities all on the North Shore. They included Beverly, Boxford, Danvers, Essex, Gloucester, Hamilton, Lynnfield, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Marblehead, Middleton, Nahant, Rockport, Salem, Swampscott, Topsfield, and Wenham. NST was the home to their logo and mascot, the bulldog.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Adams, Jane Meredith. "North Shore Weeklies Inc. Is Sold". The Boston Globe, page 69, October 9, 1986.
  2. ↑ Richard, Ray. "A War? It's News in Georgetown". The Boston Globe, page 1, November 12, 1982.
  3. ↑ "New England Briefs: 2 North Shore Weeklies Purchased by Publisher". The Boston Globe, page 1, October 18, 1983.
  4. ↑ Vennochi, Joan. "Fidelity's Quiet Venture Into Newspapers". The Boston Globe, June 23, 1991.
  5. ↑ "North Shore Weeklies Buys Lynn Sunday Post". The Boston Globe, page 9, October 25, 1992.
  6. ↑ Nutile, Tom, and Steven Syre. "On State Street: Newspaper Changes". Boston Herald, page 26, August 11, 1995.
  7. ↑ Cassidy, Tina. "Community Newspaper Realigns Properties". The Boston Globe, January 12, 1996.
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