''The Wakefield Daily Item'' is an independent weekday
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 ...
published in
Wakefield, Massachusetts
Wakefield is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, incorporated in 1812 and located about north-northwest of Downtown Boston. Wakefield's population was 27,090 at the 2020 census. Wakefield offers ...
, with issues published Mondays through Fridays.
History
Fred W. Young printed the first ''Item'' on May 7, 1894, running the paper until selling to printer Alstead W. Browne in March 1900; he sold out to Harris M. Dolbeare, who established the Wakefield Item Company April 1, 1900.
[WakefieldItem.com: About](_blank)
accessed January 26, 2007.
The Item is famous for the "Looking Backward" column, detailing events that took place in Wakefield and around the country 25, 50, 75, and 100 years ago from the date of the newspaper.
The Item's presidents have all been Dolbeare's heirs—his widow Emma Dolbeare, sons Cyrus and Richard Dolbeare, and now grandson Glenn Dolbeare. The paper has had seven editors: Harris Dolbeare (1900–his death in 1938), Gardner Campbell (1938–1953), Robert C. Reed (1953–1966), Kendall Dolbeare (1966–1986), Janet Constantakes (1986–1988) and Peter Rossi (since 1988).
The newspaper competes for readers in Wakefield with a local edition of the ''
Daily Times Chronicle'', based in nearby
Woburn and
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...
; and with the ''Wakefield Observer'', a
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 ...
published at the
Beverly office 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 ...
.
On January 27, 2009, the Item changed its format from
broadsheet
A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...
to
tabloid.
The Item is located at
26 Albion Street in the
town center
A town centre is the commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town. Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train or bus st ...
.
See also
*
Item Building (Wakefield, Massachusetts)
References
External links
''The Wakefield Daily Item'' Website
Newspapers published in Massachusetts
Mass media in Middlesex County, Massachusetts
{{Massachusetts-newspaper-stub
Newspapers established in 1894
1894 establishments in Massachusetts