Hathaway Publishing was a subsidiary of The Local Media Group Inc. Hathaway published five weekly newspapers in the South Coast region of

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 ...

History

Owned by the Hathaway family until 1997, the company later partnered with its former competitor, the Ottaway 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 ...

. Together, the two companies comprised Ottaway's South Coast Media Group.SouthCoast Media Marketing Guide
, accessed January 10, 2007. William T. Kennedy serves as publisher of both properties, although former owner Warren G. Hathaway is publisher emeritus of the weeklies. Both Hathaway and ''The Standard-Times'' contribute to a regional Web site, SouthCoastToday.com. News Corp. acquired Ottaway when it bought parent company

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'' ...

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.

Holdings

Hathaway published four newspapers at the time Ottaway bought it: ''The Advocate'', ''The Chronicle'', the ''Middleboro Gazette'' and ''The Spectator''. The

Somerset, Massachusetts Somerset is a New England town, town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,303 at the 2020 census. It is the birthplace and hometown of Clifford Milburn Holland (1883–1924), the chief engineer and namesake of t ...

-based family company was founded by Sidney L. Hathaway Jr., who established ''The Spectator'' there in 1932. In 2003, Ottaway added the fifth newspaper, ''The Fall River Spirit''.

References

{{Gannett American companies established in 1932 Publishing companies established in 1932 Mass media companies established in 1932 Newspapers published in Massachusetts Mass media in Bristol County, Massachusetts Mass media in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Gannett 2013 mergers and acquisitions Somerset, Massachusetts Newspaper companies of the United States