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The ''Connecticut Post'' is a daily
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 ...
located in
Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the List of cities in New England by population, fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Loc ...
. It serves Fairfield County and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Municipalities in the Post's circulation area include Ansonia, Bridgeport, Darien,
Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
, Easton, Fairfield, Milford, Monroe, New Canaan, Orange,
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
, Redding, Ridgefield, Seymour, Shelton, Stratford, Trumbull,
Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * W ...
, Westport and Wilton. The newspaper is owned and operated by the
Hearst Corporation Hearst Corporation, Hearst Holdings Inc. and Hearst Communications Inc. comprise an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate owned by the Hearst family and based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York ...
, a multinational corporate
media conglomerate A media conglomerate, media company, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, video games, amusement parks, or ...
with $4 billion in revenues. The ''Connecticut Post'' also gains revenue by offering
classified advertising Classified advertising is a form of advertising, particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals, which may be sold or distributed free of charge. Classified advertisements are much cheaper than larger display advertisements use ...
for job hunters with minimal
regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...
s and separate listings for products and services.


The ''Post''

The paper has a weekday circulation of 53,866, a Saturday circulation of 41,768, and a Sunday circulation of 80,840, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, behind the ''
Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is advertised as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven and ...
'' (264,539) and the '' New Haven Register'' (89,022). It is southwestern Connecticut's largest circulation daily newspaper. The paper competes directly with the ''Register'' in Stratford, Milford, and portions of the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Since June 2017, the ''Post'' and the ''Register'' have been under common ownership, with management led first by Hearst Connecticut Media Group president Paul Barbetta and since May 2019 by his successor Mike Deluca. The publisher is Mike Deluca who is also the president of Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Recent editor James H. Smith departed abruptly on June 26, 2008. No reason was given to staff, but Smith later attributed his departure to "mutual agreement". Smith had attempted to take the newspaper in a different direction, stressing slice-of-life style features and enterprise and investigative work while playing down court/police coverage. He avoided layoffs despite economic pressures, opting instead to offer buyouts and drastically cut the freelance budget. In October 2019 Wendy Metcalfe was named editor-in-chief of Hearst Connecticut Media on the abrupt ouster of Matt Derienzo. The ''Post'' employs seven editors within their departments including a digital news editor, sports editor, arts & entertainment editor, business editor, features editor, editorial page editor and photo editor. These editors work along with the managing editor and two assistant managing editors to build the newspaper daily. The ''Post''s coverage area presents problems as Bridgeport, Connecticut's largest city, is a poor and mostly minority area, while the surrounding eastern Fairfield County and western New Haven County area is affluent and mostly white. Consequently, while the Post does provide solid coverage of Bridgeport, most of the paper is composed of local stories regarding the surrounding towns.


History

The newspaper was formerly the morning ''Bridgeport Telegram'' and evening ''Bridgeport Post'' before consolidating into a morning publication. The ''Bridgeport Telegram'' ran from at least 1908 to 1929 and again from 1938 to 1990. Until the mid-1980s the ''Post'' was published as an afternoon paper and the ''Telegram'' was the morning paper. In 1981, a ''Post'' wire service editor died at his desk after his head fell into a glue pot, leaving him stuck. This occurred while a Girl Scout troop was touring the newsroom. In 1986, a young staffer at the ''Post'' office dropped his coat with a handgun in it, and accidentally shot a bullet into the ceiling. The man had become a drug dealer on the side and was arrested in the lobby for selling cocaine by an undercover police officer working as a janitor at the building. In 2017, the ''Post''s offices moved from 410 State St. to 1057 Broad St. The ''Post'' had been operating at the State Street location since 1928. The change in office space was made after deciding to downsize after most of the staff had moved to Hearst Connecticut Media's headquarters in Norwalk, CT. Only 20 employees made up of local reporters, editors and photographers work at the new location. The ''Post'' was formerly owned by
Thomson Corporation Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organization and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to form Thomson Reut ...
, a national newspaper chain. In 2000, Thomson agreed to sell the ''Post'' for $205 million to
MediaNews Group MNG Enterprises, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado, United States–based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. As of May 2021, it owns over 100 newspapers and 200 ass ...
, based in
Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
, Colorado, which also owned newspapers in
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 ...
and
New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
. On August 8, 2008, the Hearst Corporation acquired the ''Connecticut Post'' (Bridgeport) and www.ConnPost.com, including seven non-daily newspapers, from MediaNews Group, Inc., and assumed management control of three additional daily newspapers in Fairfield County, including ''The Advocate'' (Stamford), '' Greenwich Time'' (Greenwich), and ''
The News-Times ''The News-Times'' is a daily newspaper based in Danbury, Connecticut, United States. It is owned and operated by the Hearst Corporation. The paper covers Danbury, a city in Fairfield County in southwestern Connecticut, as well as, portion ...
'' (Danbury), which had been managed for Hearst by MediaNews under a management agreement that began in April 2007. Overall, the company publishes 24 dailies and 56 weeklies across the country. The Hearst Corporation also has ownership in global financial services, cable channels A&E, History, Lifetime and ESPN, television stations, including WCVB-TV in Boston, and over 300 magazines. In 2010, the ''Connecticut Post'' launched a complete re-design which included a new font and re-designed ''Connecticut Post'' header. Some significant stories the ''Post'' has broken include former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim's bribery scandal and former Bridgeport Mayor John Fabrizi's admission of using
cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
. In 2008, under Smith's leadership, the ''Connecticut Post'' received its first Newspaper of the Year Award from the New England Newspaper Association. Comedian and actor Richard Belzer, a Bridgeport native, was a paperboy and later a staff reporter for the ''Post'', before pursuing his career as an entertainer.


See also

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References


External links


''Connecticut Post''Hearst CorporationHistory of the ''Connecticut Post''
{{Hearst Hearst Communications publications Mass media in Bridgeport, Connecticut Mass media in Fairfield County, Connecticut Newspapers published in Connecticut