News-Transcript Group, based in
Framingham, Massachusetts
Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popul ...
, United States, was a
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written 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 politics, business, sport ...
publisher in eastern
, overseeing three daily newspapers and several
weekly newspaper
A 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 new ...
s before being bought by
Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments, commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is on ...
in 1995 and dissolved into
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 propertie ...
the next year.
History
The group was formed in 1986 when
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 ...
bought Transcript Newspapers Inc. of
Dedham, Massachusetts
Dedham ( ) is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 25,364 at the 2020 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest b ...
, merging it with the ''
Middlesex News''. Later that year, Harte-Hanks bought Century Newspapers and combined its operations with News-Transcript. In the mid-1990s, as Harte-Hanks divested its newspaper holdings, the company announced in 1994 that it would sell the 14-newspaper chain to
Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments, commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is on ...
.
["Middlesex News Changing Owners". ''Telegram & Gazette'' (Worcester, Mass.), November 23, 1994.]
The purchase price was not disclosed, but was estimated at
US$30 million to
US$40 million. When the sale was complete in 1995, Fidelity made News-Transcript a division of
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 propertie ...
, which became the second-largest circulation publisher in
, with 766,000 weekly copies.
[Nutile, Tom. "Fidelity Unit Buys Harte-Hanks Papers". ''Boston Herald'', page 18, April 1, 1995.]
News-Transcript—known within CNC as Middlesex Community Newspapers—was dissolved in early 1996, when CNC realigned its operating units by geography, assigning the News-Transcript papers to new Metro, Northwest and West units.
Northeast Group
Harte-Hanks bought the ''Middlesex News'' in 1972, establishing its "Northeast Group" of newspapers, which included three ''Town Crier'' weeklies in towns neighboring the ''News''
' core coverage area of
Framingham
Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Bost ...
and
Natick, Massachusetts
Natick ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is near the center of the MetroWest region of Massachusetts, with a population of 37,006 at the 2020 census. west of Boston, Natick is part of the Greater Boston area. ...
. The ''News'', a 40,000-circulation daily, gave Harte-Hanks—and later CNC—a mid-sized daily newspaper to serve as a
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the f ...
for scattered weeklies and smaller dailies.
Northeast Group added the 79-year-old ''
Wellesley Townsman'' October 1, 1985, bought from owner Robert Linnell. The purchase was part of a push into the affluent suburb by the ''Middlesex News'', which also debuted a new edition of the daily paper there.
Transcript Newspapers Inc.
The publisher of two smaller daily newspapers, Transcript Newspapers Inc. was owned for years by
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
publisher
Post Corporation. The papers'
typesetters organized a long and at times violent strike in 1980, alleging unfair labor practices. Eleven reporters and editors at the Waltham paper were fired for refusing to cross a picket line; in all, about 60 Transcript employees were laid off for striking.
Between August 1984 and March 1986, the company was sold four times: to
Gillett Communications in 1984; then to
Thomson Newspapers
The Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organisation Ltd (ITOL) and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to fo ...
that December; in April 1985 to
William Dean Singleton (head of
MediaNews Group
MNG Enterprises, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado-based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. The company has been growing its portfolio and as of May 2021, owns ove ...
)—and eventually, in 1986, to Harte-Hanks.
Century Newspapers
Harte-Hanks' purchase of Century Newspapers in mid-1986 added six weeklies to News-Transcript Group, in suburbs north and west of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
. Two of the newspapers remain part of
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 propertie ...
today: ''The Arlington Advocate'' and ''The Winchester Star''.
By the time Fidelity bought the newspapers, the ''Belmont Citizen'' and ''Belmont Herald'' had merged, the ''Watertown Sun'' had closed, and the ''Newton Transcript'' had merged with Northeast Group's ''Newton Graphic''.
The merger of the two
Belmont
Belmont may refer to:
People
* Belmont (surname)
Places
* Belmont Abbey (disambiguation)
* Belmont Historic District (disambiguation)
* Belmont Hotel (disambiguation)
* Belmont Park (disambiguation)
* Belmont Plantation (disambiguation)
* Belmon ...
papers was controversial. They had competed for 50 years when Century, publisher of the ''Citizen'', bought the less newsy ''Herald'' from publisher John Martin Jr. in early 1986. The ''Herald''
's editor, Robert Mead, urged Belmont residents to boycott his former paper, as the two "competitors" began collaborating their coverage and sharing staff, although initially they continued to publish separate editions.
[Pokorny, Brad. "Belmont: Two Weeklies or One? Some Object to Citizen's Purchase of Its Rival". ''The Boston Globe'', page 22, March 17, 1986.]
Properties
At the time of its sale to CNC, News-Transcript Group consisted of three daily and 11 weekly newspapers, all in
(the papers' owners before 1986 are listed in parentheses):
* ''
Daily Transcript'' of
Dedham (flagship of Transcript Newspapers)
* ''
Middlesex News'' (daily) of
Framingham
Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Bost ...
(flagship of Harte-Hanks' Northeast Group)
* ''
News-Tribune'' (daily) of
Waltham (Transcript)
* ''The Arlington Advocate'' of
Arlington (Century Newspapers)
* ''Belmont Citizen-Herald'' of
Belmont
Belmont may refer to:
People
* Belmont (surname)
Places
* Belmont Abbey (disambiguation)
* Belmont Historic District (disambiguation)
* Belmont Hotel (disambiguation)
* Belmont Park (disambiguation)
* Belmont Plantation (disambiguation)
* Belmon ...
(Century; was two papers)
* ''Needham Chronicle'' of
Needham (Transcript)
* ''The Newton Graphic'' of
Newton (Century and Transcript; was two papers)
* ''Parkway Transcript'' of
Roslindale
Roslindale is a primarily residential neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bordered by Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, West Roxbury and Mattapan.
It is served by an MBTA Commuter Rail line, several MBTA bus lines and the MBTA Orange Line in nearb ...
, in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
(Transcript)
* ''Sudbury Town Crier'' of
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to:
Places Australia
* Sudbury Reef, Queensland
Canada
* Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes)
** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...
(Northeast Group)
* ''Wayland Town Crier'' of
Wayland (Northeast Group)
* ''Wellesley Townsman'' of
Wellesley (Northeast Group)
* ''West Roxbury Transcript'' of
West Roxbury
West Roxbury is a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the town of Brookline to the north, the cities and towns of Newton and Needham to the northwest and the town of Dedham to t ...
, in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
(Transcript)
* ''Weston Town Crier'' of
Weston (Northeast Group)
* ''The Winchester Star'' of
Winchester (flagship of Century Newspapers)
All of these newspapers except the ''Newton Graphic'' and ''Needham Chronicle'' are still published by
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 propertie ...
, now a division of
GateHouse Media, although the dailies' and Roslindale paper's names have changed. The Newton paper (itself the product of a merger) was merged with CNC's ''Newton Tab'' after the News-Transcript sale.
References
{{CNC
Mass media in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
MetroWest
Defunct newspaper companies of the United States
Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts