Enterprise-Sun

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.

The combined paper ended in 1995, replaced by two weekly newspapers—the ''Marlborough Enterprise'' and ''Hudson Sun''—and the west edition of ''The MetroWest Daily News'', all of which are owned by Community Newspaper Company, now part of GateHouse Media.

History

Thomas Hayden began publishing the ''Daily Enterprise'' in 1889, one year after beginning it as a weekly. Across the town line, the ''Hudson Daily Sun'' was founded by William H. Murphy in 1902. The Marlborough paper went through minor name changes, adding and dropping the words "Marlboro" and "Daily" in its name, in its century of publication.

''Enterprise'' owners Dustin Lucier and Charles H. Toby bought the ''Daily Sun'' in 1922, but the combined Marlborough newsroom continued to publish two separate newspapers until 1993. Grace Mada Lucier, Dustin's widow, sold the paper to the rival ''Worcester Telegram'' in 1969.

In 1984, the papers were transferred to Beacon Communications Corporation, a chain of a dozen weekly newspapers in western Middlesex County, which was purchased that year by the family-owned ''Telegram''. In 1986, control passed to out-of-state interests for the first time, as the ''Telegram'' was sold to Chronicle Publishing Company of San Francisco, California.

In 1993, Chronicle, looking to concentrate on Worcester County, dealt the Beacon papers to Community Newspaper Company, which would soon become publisher of the dailies' most direct competitor, the ''Middlesex News'' (later to be renamed ''The MetroWest Daily News'').

Demise

Throughout the early 1990s, the ''Enterprise'' and ''Sun'' reinvented themselves in an effort to turn around declining revenues.

Up to the 1980s, both papers came out in the afternoon on weekdays; by then, they were also printing Saturday morning editions. Under the ''Telegram'''s ownership, Marlborough and Hudson converted to all-morning publication July 9, 1990, echoing the ''Telegram'''s closure of its ''Evening Gazette'' sister paper in 1986. At the time, the papers' editor said the move reflected changing reader demographics and would allow for better coverage of state and business news.

Shortly after being acquired by CNC, the papers were merged into a single ''Enterprise-Sun'' in 1993. Later that year, only three years after touting increased space for state news, the paper's new editor dropped the Associated Press wire and began touting "All Local News" as a way to differentiate the ''Enterprise-Sun'' from its competitors.

Despite these efforts, CNC closed the ''Enterprise-Sun'' in September 1995, reassigning its staff to the ''Middlesex News'' and the new weeklies. Today the daily newspapers' names survive on the nameplates of weeklies published from CNC's Marlborough office, but most Marlborough and Hudson crime and political news appears first in ''The MetroWest Daily News'', which shares an office and some staff with the weeklies, and publishes a separate edition for the Marlborough area.

References

External links

''Hudson Sun'' weekly on WickedLocal.com

''Marlborough Enterprise'' weekly on WickedLocal.com

''The MetroWest Daily News''

{{Newspapers in Massachusetts

Marlborough, Massachusetts
Mass media in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Newspapers published in Massachusetts
Newspapers established in 1889
1889 establishments in Massachusetts