''The Laconia Daily Sun'' is a five-day (Tuesday through Saturday) free morning
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 ...
published in the city of
Laconia, New Hampshire
Laconia ( ) is a city in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,871 at the 2020 census, up from 15,951 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Belknap County. Laconia, situated between Lake Winnipesaukee and ...
, United States, covering
Belknap County and the
Lakes Region. Each publication day, 18,000 copies of the paper are distributed by bulk drops at more than 300 locations. Home delivery is available for a fee. The paper also publishes a free online edition.
The newspaper draws many of its readers from Laconia, but also covers
Alton (and
Alton Bay),
Belmont,
Center Harbor,
Gilford,
Gilmanton,
Meredith,
Sanbornton and
Tilton (including
Winnisquam), all in Belknap County.
[The Laconia Daily Sun Advertising Ratecard](_blank)
, January 1, 2006. Accessed February 11, 2007.
Lakes Region News Club, Inc., which owns ''The Laconia Daily Sun'', is a partnership between President Edward J. Engler, Publisher Adam Hirshan and Mark Guerringue, publisher of ''
The Conway Daily Sun''.
''The Laconia Daily Sun'' was founded June 5, 2000, with Engler as publisher and John Hourihan as editor. The initial press run was 2,000 copies, and the paper was in direct competition with ''
The (Laconia) Citizen'', a paid circulation daily newspaper founded in 1926 and owned at the time by the Robert Foster family of
Dover, New Hampshire
Dover is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 32,741 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most populous city in the New Hampshire Seacoast Region (New Hampshire), Seacoast region and ...
. The two daily newspapers were head-to-head competitors for more than 16 years, until The (Laconia) Citizen ceased publication on Oct. 1, 2016.
Engler assumed the position of editor in 2002 and held it until November, 2015 when he retired and was succeeded by Ginger Kozlowski, formerly editor of The (Laconia) Citizen, (Engler was elected mayor of Laconia in 2013 and again in 2015.) Hirshan and Guerringue were not involved in the day-to-day operations of the newspaper in the early years, but Hirshan took over responsibility for the advertising department in 2006 and added oversight of the front office when he began working full-time in Laconia in 2007. He assumed the publisher's role in 2012.
The newspaper was initially printed by ''The Conway Daily Sun'' but began printing with the
Dow Jones Dow Jones is a combination of the names of business partners Charles Dow and Edward Jones.
Dow Jones & Company
Dow, Jones and Charles Bergstresser founded Dow Jones & Company in 1882. That company eventually became a subsidiary of News Corp, an ...
-owned Seacoast Media Group in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on ...
, in 2008 and with the Concord Monitor in 2014. The move to Seacoast Media Group also marked the beginning of a revolutionary "all color all the time" policy whereby display advertising rates were revised to reflect the fact that all display ads in the newspaper would thereafter be printed in full color.
Sisters and competitors
Unlike the original ''Daily Sun'' newspapers, ''The Laconia Daily Sun'' went head-to-head with an established, paid-subscription daily newspaper on its home turf: ''
The Citizen'', based in Laconia (The Citizen ceased publication in October 2016). The first two News Club dailies are the only daily newspapers in their counties: ''
The Conway Daily Sun'' in
Carroll County, and ''
The Berlin Daily Sun'' in
Coos County, New Hampshire Coos may refer to:
People
* Cowasuck, also known as Cowass or Coös, an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe in northeastern North America
* Coos people, an Indigenous people of the Northwest Plateau in Oregon
* Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lo ...
. In 2009, News Club founded a fourth free daily, ''
The Portland Daily Sun'', in
Maine
Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
's largest city, which was closed in November 2014, when it acquired the alternative weekly ''The Portland Phoenix''. ''The Conway Daily Sun'' also publishes a monthly tourist magazine called ''North Conway'' with a distribution of 15,000.
References
External links
''The Laconia Daily Sun'' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laconia Daily Sun
Newspapers published in New Hampshire
Free daily newspapers
Belknap County, New Hampshire
Laconia, New Hampshire
Newspapers established in 2000
2000 establishments in New Hampshire