Community Weeklies Inc., based in Woburn, Massachusetts, United States, founded three weekly newspapers in the

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

s north of Boston before being bought by Fidelity Investments in 1994 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 ...

two years later. The company was founded by developer William S. Cummings 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 Nation ...

, the largest property owner in Woburn, to compete with the ''

Daily Times Chronicle The ''Daily Times Chronicle'' is a family-owned five-day (Monday through Friday) daily newspaper published in Woburn, Massachusetts, with separate daily editions and associated weekly newspapers covering several towns along Massachusetts Route 128 ...

'' and a supposedly "anti-business" local political scene.

History

After years of complaining about the quality of the local daily and criticizing local politics—including several guest columns in the ''Daily Times''—Cummings in 1991 envisioned starting a monthly newspaper to offer "an alternative voice" in Woburn. He found an advertising base willing to support a weekly, however, so in October 1991 he debuted his free weekly, explaining: Nevertheless, Cummings' status as Woburn's largest landowner, and landlord at its largest office parks, opened the paper to the impression that its editorials and business coverage were simply mouthpieces for Cummings Properties, a charge Cummings denied. The Woburn paper's coverage of Stoneham and

—neighboring towns to Woburn—proved so successful that Cummings established new weeklies for those towns in 1994. Upon the debut of the ''Winchester Town Crier'', Cummings detailed his formula: Emphasis on features and sports, with less coverage of local government than his competitors. Later that year, however, Cummings decided to sell his three-paper chain to Fidelity Investments, parent of

, the largest publisher of weeklies in Massachusetts."Business Briefcase". ''Boston Herald'', page 36, September 30, 1994. Community Weeklies was dissolved in early 1996, when CNC realigned its operating units by geography, assigning the papers to its new Northwest Unit.Cassidy, Tina. "Community Newspaper Realigns Properties". ''The Boston Globe'', January 12, 1996.

Properties

At the time of its sale to CNC, Community Weeklies consisted of the following weeklies: * ''Stoneham Sun'' of Stoneham (founded 1994) * ''Winchester Town Crier'' of

(founded 1994) * ''Woburn Advocate'' of Woburn (founded 1991) The Winchester paper was folded into CNC's ''The Winchester Star'', a decades-old weekly. The ''Advocate'' is in the Northwest Unit; the Stoneham paper, originally grouped in Northwest, is now part of CNC's North Unit.

References

{{CNC Mass media in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Newspapers published in Massachusetts Defunct newspaper companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Massachusetts