Memorial Press Group

Memorial Press Group, based in Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States, was a chain of weekly newspapers along the South Shore near Boston, Massachusetts. Long owned by ''The Patriot Ledger'' in nearby Quincy, MPG and its daily parent were sold to GateHouse Media in 2006.

Today, several former MPG papers still publish as part of Community Newspaper Company, purchased by GateHouse at the same time. Many of the others were folded into former competitors published by CNC.

History

The '' Old Colony Memorial'', which claims the title of oldest weekly newspaper in New England, was founded in 1822 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The ''Memorial'' had become the flagship of a nine-paper chain stretching from Plymouth north to the Boston suburbs by the turn of the 21st century.

Dailies

K. Prescott Low, whose family had published ''The Patriot Ledger'' for a century, purchased MPG in 1979 and incorporated it into the privately owned George W. Prescott Publishing Company. Thirty years later, however, in 1997, Low found that "mega-players competing with us" made family ownership of the ''Ledger'' and MPG uneconomic, and sought to sell them.

A buyer quickly emerged: James F. Plugh, owner of '' The Enterprise'', the Brockton daily newspaper that competed with the ''Ledger'' and several MPG papers. Plugh's Newspaper Media LLC, later renamed Enterprise NewsMedia, bought the Prescott Publishing for an estimated US$60 to US$70 million.

Toward the end of Plugh's ownership of MPG, the company began expanding. In 2005, MPG purchased the Call Group of three weeklies in the Taunton area, as well as the ''Norwood Bulletin''. A year later, Plugh purchased Associated and Independent Newspapers, an independent chain of 12 weeklies in the suburbs around Brockton.

GateHouse

Liberty Publishing purchased Enterprise NewsMedia in 2006 as part of a mammoth deal that also included Community Newspaper Company—then owned by the ''Boston Herald''—and a new name for the parent company, GateHouse Media.

Under GateHouse, MPG was gradually folded into CNC's South Unit. In a reorganization announced October 1, 2006, MPG's executives were reassigned to CNC positions and a handful of newspapers were closed to eliminate competition within the merged company. Additionally, MPG papers that had been printed in tabloid format became broadsheets and would now be printed at CNC presses."Several Weeklies Ledger Parent Owns to See Change". ''The Patriot Ledger'' (Quincy, Mass.), page 34, September 14, 2006.

Properties

At the time of its incorporation into CNC in 2006, Mariner Group consisted of the following weeklies:
* ''Avon Messenger'' of Avon (part of Associated)discontinued in 2008.
* ''Bridgewater Independent'' of Bridgewater (part of Associated)
* ''Carver Reporter'' of Carver
* ''Duxbury Reporter'' of Duxbury (Discontinued December 2013)
* ''East Bridgewater Star'' of East Bridgewater (part of Associated)
* ''Easton Bulletin'' of Easton (part of Associated; folded into ''Easton Journal'' in 2006)
* ''Halifax-Plympton Reporter'' of Halifax and Plympton (Discontinued December 2013)
* ''Hanson Town Crier'' of Hanson (part of Associated)
* ''Kingston Reporter'' of Kingston
* ''The Lakeville Call'' of Lakeville (part of Call Group)
* ''Marshfield Reporter'' of Marshfield (folded into ''Marshfield Mariner'' in 2006)
* ''Norwood Bulletin'' of Norwood (bought in 2005)
* '' Old Colony Memorial'' of Plymouth (twice-weekly)
* ''Pembroke Reporter'' of Pembroke (merged with rival in 2006 to form ''Pembroke Mariner & Reporter'')
* ''Randolph Herald'' of Randolph (part of Associated)
* ''The Raynham Call'' of Raynham (part of Call Group)
* ''Rockland Standard'' of Rockland (part of Associated)
* ''The Sentinel'' of Marion and Rochester
* ''Stoughton Chronicle'' of Stoughton (part of Associated; folded into ''Stoughton Journal'' in 2006)
* ''The Taunton Call'' of Taunton (part of Call Group)
* ''Wareham Courier'' of Wareham
* ''West Bridgewater Times'' of West Bridgewater (part of Associated)
* ''Whitman Times'' of Whitman (part of Associated)

Except where noted, these titles are still published by CNC. The papers marked "Associated" were added to MPG in 2006 after its purchase of Associated and Independent Newspapers. The "Call Group" papers were purchased in 2005.

References

{{CNC

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