''The Sun'', also known as ''The Lowell Sun'', is a

daily 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, sports a ...

based in Lowell,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, United States, serving towns in Massachusetts around the

Greater Lowell Greater Lowell is the region comprising the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, and its suburbs. These lie in northern Middlesex County, Massachusetts; in the Merrimack Valley; and in southern New Hampshire. Towns The Greater Lowell area as defined ...

area and beyond. As of 2011, its average daily circulation was about 42,900 copies. It has been owned since 1997 by

MediaNews Group MNG Enterprises, Inc., 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 over 100 newspa ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

''The Sun''

The newspaper's headquarters are in the first floor of the former American Textile History Museum building in downtown Lowell. Before March 18, 2007, the newspaper occupied a succession of offices on Kearney Square, about half a mile away. One of the old news buildings, locally called "the Sunscraper," is a landmark high-rise topped with a huge neon "Sun" sign. The paper's most recent former home is across the street.Lafleur, Michael. "Sun Rising on a New Era". ''The Sun'', Lowell, Mass., March 18, 2007. The paper's

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, suc ...

s have, for decades, espoused a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

bent in a city and state where Democratic voters overwhelm Republicans. In the 1970s, editor and firebrand Clement Costello, who was known for walking around in a cape, wrote that the U.S. should annex Mexico and was credited with helping to ruin

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...

's chances of winning the 5th Congressional District seat in 1972. In 2004, the newspaper again made waves when it endorsed President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

for re-election instead of Kerry, who was then the junior U.S. senator from Massachusetts.

People

''The Sun'' was once known beyond its circulation area as the home base of the late columnist Paul Sullivan, who until 2007 hosted a nighttime talk show on WBZ radio in Boston. Before the newspaper moved, he would regularly tout scoops from "Lowell's great newspaper at 15 Kearney Square." One of the paper's most famous alumnus is

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

, a Lowell native who worked as a sports reporter for ''The Sun'' before going on to greater fame as poet laureate to the

Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...

. Another Sun alumnus is Tom Squitieri, who won the

Overseas Press Club The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...

Madeleine Dane Ross Award for his reporting on divided Cambodian refugee families living in Lowell and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. ''The Lowell Sun'' is the smallest independent newspaper to have won an OPC award.

History

Print shop owners and brothers John and Daniel Harrington founded the paper as a weekly in 1878. In its earliest years, The Sun provided the growing

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...

population a voice in a mill city that was run by wealthy

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

factory owners. Over the years, the paper outlasted its competitors to become the only major newspaper in Lowell, converting to a daily in 1892 and buying out its last competitor daily, The Courier-Citizen, in 1941; a starting the Lowell Sunday Sun in 1949; and buying out its only Sunday competition, the ''Lowell Sunday Telegram'', in 1952. The paper remained in the hands of John Harrington's descendants—Thomas F. Costello, his sons John H. and Clement C. Costello, and grandson John H. Costello Jr. with a certain amount of drama and feuds—until it was purchased August 1, 1997, by

. The newspaper's circulation at the time was 52,234, daily, and 55,804, Sunday.Lewis, Diane E. "Singleton Buys Lowell Sun from Costellos; Paper Had Been Under Family Ownership 119 Years." The Boston Globe, July 9, 1997. When he purchased the paper, MediaNews CEO

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 ...

noted that The Sun had "played a leading role in the development and growth of the Greater Lowell region," including downtown Lowell's rebirth and the establishment of minor-league baseball and

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

teams in the city. Following MediaNews' purchase (through The Sun) of

Nashoba Publications Nashoba Publishing is a weekly newspaper company in the far northwest suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. It is operated by MediaNews Group in common with sister papers the Lowell Sun and Sentinel & Enterprise. Sisters and competitors The family t ...

weeklies covering several towns between Lowell and Fitchburg, the company in 2002 consolidated printing for The Sun, Nashoba and the Fitchburg-based

Sentinel & Enterprise The ''Sentinel & Enterprise'' is a morning daily newspaper published in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, with a satellite news bureau in Leominster, Massachusetts. The newspaper covers local news in Fitchburg, Leominster and several nearby towns in north ...

' at a new

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

7 million press plant in

Devens, Massachusetts Devens is a regional enterprise zone and census-designated place in the towns of Ayer and Shirley (in Middlesex County) and Harvard (in Worcester County) in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is the successor to Fort Devens, a military post tha ...

. The move was said to have a beneficial effect on traffic in downtown Fitchburg and Lowell.Vaznis, James. "Media Company Merging Print Sites; $7M Plan Includes Move to Devens." ''The Boston Globe'', August 1, 2002.

Prices

''The Sun'' prices are: $1.50 daily, $2.50 Sunday.

References

External links