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: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

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: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American p ...

. 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 ...

for US$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 original News Corporation, it was formed on June 28, 2013, following a ...

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