Beacon Communications is a privately owned newspaper publisher serving the suburban

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

cities of Cranston, Johnston and

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...

. Begun in 1969 by John Howell and Anthony Ritacco, as a vehicle to purchase the ''Warwick Beacon'', the company was called Southern Rhode Island Publications until 1987. Howell took sole possession of the company in the 1980s, with Richard Fleischer coming on as the general manager.

Properties

In addition to its three

weekly newspaper A weekly newspaper is a general-news or current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly newspaper is published once every two weeks. Weekly n ...

s, Beacon publishes the ''Penny$aver'' shopper in Cranston and Warwick; ''ChamberWorks'', a business publication; and ''PrimeTime'', a seniors-oriented monthly magazine distributed statewide. In 2018, Beacon purchased the weekly shopper publication, the ''Coventry Reminder.'' ;''Cranston Herald'' :Founded in 1922, the ''Herald'' was for a long time run by Rosalie Frost, a former Rockette who in the 1930s became a groundbreaking female journalist. She sold the paper to Beacon shortly after 1973, when the company had started a competing weekly, ''Cranston Today''. The papers were merged under the ''Herald'' name. Today's ''Herald'' is a paid-subscription Thursday paper. Today, Tim Forsberg serves as editor while Howell remains as publisher. ;''Johnston Sun Rise'' :Beacon purchased the weekly ''Johnston Sun Rise'' in 2006. The paper is set up as a tabloid and is free of charge. It is also edited by Tim Forsberg. ;''Warwick Beacon'' :The company's flagship publication, the ''Warwick Beacon'', dates back to November 19, 1953. It switched from weekly to twice-weekly publication (currently Tuesdays and Thursdays) in the 1970s. The sports section for the paper is run by a two-person team that also edits the sports section for the Herald. Under the direction of editor Matt Metcalf and assistant editor Jacob Maroco, the department covers a total of seven high schools between the three cities.WarwickOnline: History
, accessed March 8, 2007. Howell remains an active reporter for the paper, in addition to his role as editor-in-chief. :

Sisters and competitors

In addition to the former ''Cranston Today'', the company has launched several other complementary products. Beacon founded the ''Coventry Townsman'' and ''Seekonk Sentinel'' in the early 1970s, later selling them to other owners; and ''Newport Today'' (now called ''Newport This Week''). Beacon's papers compete with ''

The Providence Journal ''The Providence Journal'', colloquially known as the ''ProJo'', is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, Rhode Island, and is the largest newspaper in Rhode Island. The newspaper was first published in 1829. The newspape ...

'' in the state's capital city, which borders Johnston and Cranston. All three Beacon newspapers are members of Rhode Island Newspaper Group, an advertising sales consortium that consists of five weekly newspaper publishers in suburban Providence. Beacon is the coordinating office for the group; other members are

Breeze Publications Breeze Publications is a privately owned publisher based in Lincoln, Rhode Island, serving northern and western Providence County with five free tabloid-format weekly newspapers. Founded in 1996 by Thomas V. Ward & James Quinn, Breeze Publicati ...

East Bay Newspapers East Bay Newspapers, also called Phoenix-Times Publishing Company, is a publisher based in Bristol, Rhode Island, United States, and owner of seven weekly newspapers in eastern Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. Office hours are Monday t ...

Hathaway Publishing Hathaway Publishing was a subsidiary of The Local Media Group Inc. Hathaway published five weekly newspapers in the South Coast region of Massachusetts. History Owned by the Hathaway family until 1997, the company later partnered with its form ...

and Southern Rhode Island Newspapers.RINewspaperGroup.com
accessed March 24, 2007.

References

{{Reflist

External links

''Cranston Herald'' Online

''Warwick Beacon'' Online
Newspaper companies of the United States Newspapers published in Rhode Island Cranston, Rhode Island Johnston, Rhode Island Warwick, Rhode Island Publishing companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in Rhode Island