Hathaway Publishing was a subsidiary of The Local Media Group Inc. Hathaway published five weekly newspapers in the

South Coast South Coast is a name often given to coastal areas to the south of a geographical region or major metropolitan area. Geographical Australia *South Coast (New South Wales), the coast of New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney * South Coast (Q ...

region of

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 ...

History

Owned by the Hathaway family until 1997, the company later partnered with its former competitor, the Ottaway daily '' The Standard-Times'' of

New Bedford, Massachusetts New Bedford (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. Up throug ...

. Together, the two companies comprised Ottaway's South Coast Media Group.SouthCoast Media Marketing Guide
, accessed January 10, 2007. William T. Kennedy serves as publisher of both properties, although former owner Warren G. Hathaway is publisher emeritus of the weeklies. Both Hathaway and ''The Standard-Times'' contribute to a regional Web site, SouthCoastToday.com. News Corp. acquired Ottaway when it bought parent company

Dow Jones & Company Dow Jones & Company, Inc. is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp and led by CEO Almar Latour. The company publishes ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''Barron's'', ''MarketWatch'', ''Mansion Global'', ''Financial News'' and ''Private Equ ...

for

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 ...

5 billion in late 2007.

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

, the head of News Corp., reportedly told investors before the deal that he would be "selling the local newspapers fairly quickly" after the Dow Jones purchase."Ottaway Papers Might Be Sold, Including 16 in N.E.
''NEPA Bulletin'' (Boston, Mass.), December 2007
, page 3. On September 4, 2013,

News Corp News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The second incarnation of the News Corporation (1980–2013), original News Corporation, it was formed ...

announced that it would sell the Dow Jones Local Media Group to Newcastle Investment Corp.—an affiliate of

Fortress Investment Group Fortress Investment Group is an American investment management firm based in New York City. Fortress was founded as a private equity firm in 1998 by Wes Edens, Rob Kauffman, and Randal Nardone. When Fortress launched on the NYSE in February 200 ...

, for $87 million. The newspapers will be operated by GateHouse Media, a newspaper group owned by Fortress. News Corp. CEO and former ''Wall Street Journal'' editor

Robert James Thomson Robert Thomson (born 11 March 1961) is an Australian journalist. Since January 2013 he has been chief executive of News Corp. Life Thomson was born in Torrumbarry, Victoria, and studied at Christian Brothers College in St Kilda East, and a ...

indicated that the newspapers were "not strategically consistent with the emerging portfolio" of the company. GateHouse in turn filed prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 27, 2013, to restructure its debt obligations in order to accommodate the acquisition.

Holdings

Hathaway published four newspapers at the time Ottaway bought it: ''The Advocate'', ''The Chronicle'', the ''Middleboro Gazette'' and ''The Spectator''. The

Somerset, Massachusetts Somerset is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,303 at the 2020 census. It is the birthplace and hometown of Clifford Milburn Holland (1883–1924), the chief engineer and namesake of the Holland Tunnel ...

-based family company was founded by Sidney L. Hathaway Jr., who established ''The Spectator'' there in 1932. In 2003, Ottaway added the fifth newspaper, ''The Fall River Spirit''.

References

{{Gannett American companies established in 1932 Publishing companies established in 1932 Mass media companies established in 1932 Newspapers published in Massachusetts Mass media in Bristol County, Massachusetts Mass media in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Former News Corporation subsidiaries Gannett 2013 mergers and acquisitions Somerset, Massachusetts Newspaper companies of the United States