''The Barnstable Patriot'' is a weekly

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

published in and for the town of Barnstable,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Although it bills itself as "an independent voice since 1830", ''The Patriot'' has been owned, since 2019, by

Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as several ...

History

Founded in 1830, ''The Barnstable Patriot'' is Cape Cod's oldest newspaper. It was started by Sylvanus B. Phinney; initially apprenticing under the journalist

Nathan Hale Nathan Hale (June 6, 1755 – September 22, 1776) was an American Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot, soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an Military intelligence, intelligence ...

at the ''

Boston Daily Advertiser The ''Boston Daily Advertiser'' (est. March 1813) was the first daily newspaper in Boston, and for many years the only daily paper in Boston. History The ''Advertiser'' was established in early March 1813. It was published by William W. Clapp ...

'', he moved to ''The Barnstable Journal'' in 1828, before founding the ''Patriot'' two years later, at the age of 22. A weekly paper, the paper espoused democratic values, with Phinney himself a Jacksonian Democrat. In the 1830s, with the founding of the ''Yarmouth Register'' a considerable back and forth battle emerged from those two papers due to the ''Register's'' championing of

John Reed Jr. John Reed Jr. (September 2, 1781 – November 25, 1860) was an American politician who was a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 1813 until 1817 and the 17th lieutenant governor of Massachusetts from 1845 until 1851. Biography Reed w ...

, the local Whig member of Congress. Phinney sold the paper in 1869 to Franklin B. Goss and George H. Richards. Goss, who had apprenticed at the Patriot before founding a string of local papers, shifted the paper's politics from Democratic to Republican as his own support shifted to supporting President Grant's administration. He passed the paper on to his son, Franklin Percy Goss, who sold it to the Crocker family. After a very short tenure, the Crocker family sold it to George Haskins. It remained in the Haskins family for 61 years. Rob and Toni Sennot bought the paper in 1994, and sold it to Ottaway Newspapers in 2005. News Corp. acquired ''The Patriot'' when it bought

Dow Jones & Company Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (also known simply as Dow Jones) is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp, and led by CEO Almar Latour. The company publishes ''The Wall Street Journal'', '' Barron's'', '' MarketWatch'', ''Mansion Global'' ...

(Ottaway's parent) for

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

5 billion in late 2007.

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...

, the head of News Corp., reportedly told investors before the deal that he would be "selling the local newspapers fairly quickly" after the Dow Jones purchase."Ottaway Papers Might Be Sold, Including 16 in N.E."
''NEPA Bulletin'' (Boston, Mass.), December 2007
, page 3. On September 4, 2013,

News Corp The second and current incarnation of News Corporation, doing business as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed on ...

announced that it would sell the Dow Jones Local Media Group to Newcastle Investment Corp.—an affiliate of

Fortress Investment Group Fortress Investment Group, LLC is an American investment management firm based in New York City. It was founded as a private equity firm in 1998 by Wes Edens, Rob Kauffman, Pete Briger, Michael Novogratz, and Randal Nardone. Overview When ...

, for $87 million. The newspapers will be operated by

GateHouse Media GateHouse Media Inc. was an American publisher of locally based print and digital media. It published 144 daily newspapers, 684 community publications, and over 569 local-market websites in 38 states. Its parent company, New Media Investment Group ...

, a newspaper group owned by Fortress. News Corp. CEO and former ''Wall Street Journal'' editor

Robert James Thomson Robert James Dell’Oro Thomson (born 11 March 1961) is an Australian journalist. Since January 2013 he has been chief executive of News Corp. Life Thomson was born in Torrumbarry, Victoria, and studied at Christian Brothers College in ...

indicated that the newspapers were "not strategically consistent with the emerging portfolio" of the company. GateHouse in turn filed prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 27, 2013, to restructure its debt obligations in order to accommodate the acquisition.

Sisters and competitors

Although Ottaway also owns ''The Patriot'''s main competitor, the daily ''

Cape Cod Times The ''Cape Cod Times'' is a broadsheet daily newspaper serving Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, which encompasses 15 towns on Cape Cod with a year-round population of about 230,000 and a circulation of about 20,000. It is owned ...

'', the weekly newspaper's newsroom is run independently of its rival. Robert F. Sennott Jr., who formerly owned the newspaper, was retained by Ottaway as publisher of ''The Patriot''. Ottaway also owns the weekly ''

The Inquirer and Mirror ''The Inquirer and Mirror'', also called ''The I&M'', or "The Inky", is the weekly newspaper of record on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. It is published every Thursday morning and has been in continuous publication since 1821. ''The Inq ...

'' of

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...

and daily '' The Standard-Times'' of

New Bedford, Massachusetts New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. At the 2020 census, New Bedford had a population of 101,079, making it the state's ninth-l ...

Community Newspaper Company 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 company's proper ...

publishes a competitor weekly newspaper, ''The Register'', in Barnstable.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnstable Patriot 1830 establishments in Massachusetts Barnstable, Massachusetts Gannett publications Mass media in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Newspapers established in 1830 Weekly newspapers published in Massachusetts

History

Sisters and competitors

See also

References