Community Newspaper Company, or CNC, was the largest publisher of
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 ...
s in eastern
in the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century. It also published several
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 ...
s in
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern ar ...
.
The company's properties were assembled by
Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments, commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is on ...
in the 1980s; Fidelity founded the company and then sold it to the ''
Boston Herald
The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulit ...
'' in 2001. Five years later, the chain was purchased by, and immediately became the largest single component of,
GateHouse Media. GateHouse gradually phased out CNC branding in favor of "WickedLocal.com", the company's website, and GateHouse Media New England; this process was complete by 2011, when staff email addresses dropped the "@cnc.com" domain.
Holdings
CNC's flagship publication was ''
The MetroWest Daily News
''The MetroWest Daily News'' is an American daily newspaper published in Framingham, Massachusetts, serving the MetroWest region of suburban Boston. The newspaper is owned by Gannett.
The newspaper covers several cities and towns in Norfolk, M ...
'', based in
Framingham, Massachusetts
Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popu ...
. In 2011 it also published ''
The Milford Daily News
''The Milford Daily News'' is an American daily newspaper covering Milford, Massachusetts, and several nearby towns in Norfolk and Worcester counties.
The newspaper is managed and printed by ''The MetroWest Daily News''. Both are owned by Gannet ...
''. It had also published, and closed, three other daily newspapers: ''
The Daily News Transcript
''The Daily News Transcript'' (formerly known as the ''Dedham Transcript'' and the ''Neponset Valley Daily News'') was a five-day (Monday through Friday) afternoon daily newspaper in Norwood, Massachusetts, U.S., covering the Neponset Valley of ...
'', ''
The Daily News Tribune
''The Daily News Tribune'' (formerly called the ''News-Tribune'' and the ''Waltham Evening News'') was an afternoon daily newspaper in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States, covering that city and the neighboring city of Newton.
In its last ye ...
'' and the ''
Enterprise-Sun
The ''Enterprise-Sun'', and its predecessors, the ''Hudson Daily Sun'' and ''Marlboro Enterprise'', were daily newspapers covering the city of Marlborough and adjoining town of Hudson, both in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
The combined paper e ...
''.
The GateHouse purchase in mid-2006 included CNC as well as
Enterprise News Media, publisher of two dailies and several weeklies that competed with CNC's
South Shore holdings. The weeklies were incorporated into CNC and the company also forged close ties with its new sister dailies, ''
The Enterprise'' and ''
The Patriot Ledger
''The Patriot Ledger'' is a daily newspaper in Quincy, Massachusetts, that serves the South Shore. It publishes Monday through Saturday.
Known for its thorough news coverage of the 26 communities south of Boston, ''The Patriot Ledger'' has won ...
'', although they—and later GateHouse Media Massachusetts acquisitions ''
The Herald News
The smaller of the two main newspapers in Massachusetts' South Coast, ''The Herald News'' is a daily newspaper based in Fall River, Massachusetts. Its coverage area includes Fall River and the nearby towns of Dighton, Freetown, Somerset, Swanse ...
'' and the ''
Taunton Daily Gazette
The ''Taunton Daily Gazette'' (and ''Taunton Sunday Gazette'') is a daily newspaper founded in 1848. Based in Taunton, Massachusetts, its coverage area also includes Berkley, Rehoboth, Dighton, Lakeville, Norton, and Raynham.
On December 1, ...
''—retained their own editorial hierarchy, however, and were not considered part of Community Newspaper Company.
CNC's holdings, as well as its Massachusetts sister papers and ''
The Bulletin'' in Connecticut, now constitute GateHouse Media New England.
Weeklies
CNC published more than 100 weeklies, semiweeklies and monthly publications. Each publication was classified in one of five or six semi-autonomous units (Cape, Metro, North, Northwest, South, West), each with its own editor-in-chief, covering distinct geographic areas of eastern
and named for its location with respect to Boston.
The West Unit included oversight over all the daily newspapers, in addition to most of the CNC weeklies that complement them; at times, the Cape Unit properties were considered part of the South Unit.
References
External links
''The MetroWest Daily News''WickedLocal.com, Website of the CNC weeklies
{{Gannett
Publishing companies established in 1991
Companies based in Massachusetts
Newspaper companies of the United States
Newspapers published in Massachusetts
Mass media in Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Gannett publications
Local mass media in Massachusetts
1991 establishments in Massachusetts