News-Transcript Group, based 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 ...

, United States, was a

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 ...

publisher in eastern

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 ...

, overseeing three daily newspapers and several

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 before being bought 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 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 proper ...

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 New England town, town in, and the county seat of, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on Boston's southwestern border, the population was 25,364 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. First settled by E ...

, 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

."Middlesex News Changing Owners". ''Telegram & Gazette'' (Worcester, Mass.), November 23, 1994. The purchase price was not disclosed, but was estimated at

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 ...

30 million to

40 million. When the sale was complete in 1995, Fidelity made News-Transcript a division of

, 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 of Massachusetts, 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 popula ...

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 United States census, 2020 census. west of Boston, Natick is part o ...

. 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 navy, 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 ...

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 U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

publisher Post Corporation. The papers'

typesetters Typesetting is the composition of text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or ''glyphs'' in digital systems representing '' characters'' (letters and other ...

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 Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organization and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to form Thomson Reuter ...

that December; in April 1985 to

William Dean Singleton William Dean Singleton (born August 1, 1951) is an American newspaper executive. He is the founder and executive board chairman of MediaNews Group, the fourth-largest newspaper company in the United States in terms of circulation, with 53 daily pa ...

(head of

MediaNews Group MNG Enterprises, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado, United States–based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. As of May 2021, it owns over 100 newspapers and 200 ass ...

)—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 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 ...

. Two of the newspapers remain part of

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 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

(flagship of Harte-Hanks' Northeast Group) * ''

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 ...

'' (daily) of Waltham (Transcript) * ''The Arlington Advocate'' of

Arlington Arlington most often refers to: *Arlington, Virginia **Arlington National Cemetery, a United States military cemetery *Arlington, Texas Arlington may also refer to: Places Australia *Arlington light rail station, on the Inner West Light Rail in S ...

(Century Newspapers) * ''Belmont Citizen-Herald'' of Belmont (Century; was two papers) * ''Needham Chronicle'' of Needham (Transcript) * ''The Newton Graphic'' of

Newton Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: People * Newton (surname), including a list of people with the surname * ...

(Century and Transcript; was two papers) * ''Parkway Transcript'' of

Roslindale Roslindale is a primarily residential neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 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 Oran ...

, in

(Transcript) * ''Sudbury Town Crier'' of

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 ...

(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, United States, bordered by Roslindale and Jamaica Plain to the northeast, the village of Chestnut Hill and the town of Brookline to the north, the city of Newton to the northwest, t ...

, in

(Transcript) * ''Weston Town Crier'' of

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 ...

(Northeast Group) * ''The Winchester Star'' of

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

(flagship of Century Newspapers) All of these newspapers except the ''Newton Graphic'' and ''Needham Chronicle'' are still published by

, now a division of

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 ...

, 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