''The MetroWest Daily News'' is an American

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

Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston ...

, serving the

MetroWest MetroWest is a cluster of cities and towns lying west of Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financia ...

region of

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. The newspaper is owned 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 ...

. The newspaper covers several cities and towns in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

and

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engl ...

counties. Until 1998 it was named for Middlesex County (most recently as the ''Middlesex News'') or for the then-town of Framingham (through most of the mid-20th century, as the ''Framingham News'').

History

Originally a locally owned evening newspaper, the ''News'' was purchased by the

Harte-Hanks Harte Hanks is a global marketing services company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Harte Hanks services include analytics, strategy, marketing technology, creative services, digital marketing, customer care, direct mail, logistics, and ful ...

newspaper chain as its first foray into Massachusetts journalism, in 1972. By 1986, the paper sold 49,000 copies daily and 55,000 on Sunday,Adams, Jane Meredith. "Harte-Hanks Acquires Transcript Group". ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', March 14, 1986. and also published four Framingham-area

weekly newspaper Weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electronic publishing, digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly newspap ...

s: the ''Town Crier'' papers in

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...

, Wayland and

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 ...

, and the ''Townsman'' in Wellesley. That year, Harte-Hanks added the '' Daily Transcript'' of Dedham and the ''

News-Tribune News Tirbune may refer to: * ''The News Tribune'' in Tacoma, Washington * ''News Tribune'' (Jefferson City) in Jefferson City, Missouri * ''News and Tribune The ''News and Tribune'' is a six-day (Monday through Saturday) daily newspaper serving ...

'' of Waltham, and 17 weeklies, to its holdings, and merged its Massachusetts properties into a single organization that became known as News-Transcript Group. Around that time, amid a review of the four local newspaper companies competing in the Framingham area, ''

'' gave the paper credit for wide-ranging coverage of foreign, national, local, sports, arts and lifestyle news, but Tab Communications publisher Russell Pergament said his daily competition left a niche for his community papers: The ''News'' weekly competitors were mostly bought out by

Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments, formerly known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), owned by FMR LLC and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, provides financial services. Established in 1946, the company is one of the largest asset managers in the ...

in the early 1990s, and became sister papers in 1994, when Harte-Hanks decided to sell its newspapers and Fidelity's

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 ...

announced it would buy the News-Transcript Group. Before purchasing News-Transcript, CNC's only daily was the ''News'' rival '' Enterprise-Sun'' of

Marlborough Marlborough or the Marlborough may refer to: Places Australia * Marlborough, Queensland * Principality of Marlborough, a short-lived micronation in 1993 * Marlborough Highway, Tasmania; Malborough was an historic name for the place at the sou ...

. The ''News'' daily circulation at the time was given as 35,516, and 45,174 on Sunday. In 2000, after adding more weeklies to its fold, Fidelity sold CNC to the publisher of the ''

Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American conservative daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarde ...

''. The new owner instituted a content-sharing arrangement between CNC and the ''Herald'', resulting in a regular stream of ''Daily News'' stories appearing in the Boston newspaper. That arrangement continued for a short while after the ''Herald'' sold CNC to Liberty Group Publishing (later renamed

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 ...

) in 2006.

Name

The current name is the sixth for the ''Daily News''. Known at the start of 20th century as the ''Framingham Evening News'', it became simply the ''Framingham News'' in 1926 and carried that moniker until 1971, when the ''South Middlesex Daily News'' was adopted. Six years later, that name was shortened to ''South Middlesex News'', then in 1979 to ''Middlesex News'', which remained its name until 1998."Middlesex News to Get New Name Next Month". ''

The Patriot Ledger ''The Patriot Ledger'' is a daily newspaper in Quincy, Massachusetts, that serves the South Shore. It publishes Monday through Saturday. History The paper was founded on , as the weekly ''Quincy Patriot'' by John Adams Green and Edmund Butl ...

'' (Quincy, Mass.), p. 6, September 15, 1998. The regional term

was promoted to the nameplate October 19, 1998, as a response to the dissolution of

county government A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) ''Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denotin ...

in Middlesex County, and a recognition of the newspaper's reach into Norfolk and Worcester counties. The name had been coined and adopted by the newspaper in the 1980s as a means of giving its circulation area more of a shared identity than earlier alternatives -- "Greater Framingham" (which many towns in the paper's northern coverage area, western Middlesex County, did not feel they belonged to) and "South Middlesex" (which excluded towns in other counties). Reporter Greg Supernovich suggested the name—for which he received dinner for two.Higgins, Richard. "Metrowest: Gimmick or Identity?" ''The Boston Globe'', p. 1, October 18, 1998.

Online

As befits a newspaper covering

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 ...

' high-tech corridor—an earlier alternative to "MetroWest" was "Databelt"—the ''Daily News'' was among the pioneers in electronic publishing. Along with ten other members of the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

, the ''Middlesex News'' in 1980 offered a digital text edition to

CompuServe CompuServe, Inc. (CompuServe Information Service, Inc., also known by its initialism CIS or later CSi) was an American Internet company that provided the first major commercial online service provider, online service. It opened in 1969 as a times ...

. The bulletin board service's subscribers could then, via

dial-up Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...

, access ''News'' stories on their personal computers."Eleven Newspapers Chosen for Electronic Delivery Test". ''The Boston Globe'', p. 1, June 27, 1980. In 1987, the paper debuted its own BBS, called Fred the Computer. Subscribers could dial into Fred and see the next day's headlines, submit press releases and write letters to the editor. In 1993, the ''News'' set up a

Gopher Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. The roughly 41 speciesSearch results for "Geomyidae" on thASM Mammal Diversity Database are all endemic to North and Central America. They ar ...

site, making it the first general-circulation United States newspaper on the Internet. The

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...

edition of ''The MetroWest Daily News'' was launched in September 2001. It shares templates and systems with other GateHouse New England properties' websites, at Wicked Local.

References

External links

''The MetroWest Daily News''
{{DEFAULTSORT:MetroWest Daily News Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts Mass media in Middlesex County, Massachusetts MetroWest Newspapers published in Massachusetts Newspapers established in 1897 Gannett publications 1897 establishments in Massachusetts