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{{Short description|Former newspaper publisher}}
{{Infobox company
| name = News-Transcript Group
| logo =
| caption =
| fate = Bought, then dissolved
| successor = [[Community Newspaper Company]]
| foundation = 1986
| defunct = 1996
| location = 33 New York Avenue, <br/> [[Framingham, Massachusetts]] 01701 United States
| industry = [[Newspaper]]s
| key_people = Asa Cole, group publisher
| products = ''[[The MetroWest Daily News|Middlesex News]]'', two other dailies, and 11 [[weekly newspaper]]s
| num_employees = 1994: 460
| parent = [[Harte-Hanks]], 1985-1995 <br/> [[Fidelity Investments]], 1995-1996
| subsid =
}}

'''News-Transcript Group''', based in [[Framingham, Massachusetts]], United States, was a [[newspaper]] publisher in eastern [[Massachusetts]], overseeing three daily newspapers and several [[weekly newspaper]]s before being bought by [[Fidelity Investments]] in 1995 and dissolved into [[Community Newspaper Company]] the next year.

== History ==
The group was formed in 1986 when [[Harte-Hanks]] bought Transcript Newspapers Inc. of [[Dedham, Massachusetts]], merging it with the ''[[The MetroWest Daily News|Middlesex News]]''. Later that year, Harte-Hanks bought Century Newspapers and combined its operations with News-Transcript. In the mid-1990s, as Harte-Hanks divested its newspaper holdings, the company announced in 1994 that it would sell the 14-newspaper chain to [[Fidelity Investments]].<ref name="News">"Middlesex News Changing Owners". ''Telegram & Gazette'' (Worcester, Mass.), November 23, 1994.</ref>

The purchase price was not disclosed, but was estimated at [[US$]]30 million to [[US$]]40 million. When the sale was complete in 1995, Fidelity made News-Transcript a division of [[Community Newspaper Company]], which became the second-largest circulation publisher in [[Massachusetts]], with 766,000 weekly copies.<ref name="Buy">Nutile, Tom. "Fidelity Unit Buys Harte-Hanks Papers". ''Boston Herald'', page 18, April 1, 1995.</ref>

News-Transcript—known within CNC as Middlesex Community Newspapers—was dissolved in early 1996, when CNC realigned its operating units by geography, assigning the News-Transcript papers to new Metro, Northwest and West units.<ref>Cassidy, Tina. "Community Newspaper Realigns Properties". ''The Boston Globe'', January 12, 1996.</ref>

=== Northeast Group ===
{{main article|The MetroWest Daily News}}
Harte-Hanks bought the ''Middlesex News'' in 1972, establishing its "Northeast Group" of newspapers, which included three ''Town Crier'' weeklies in towns neighboring the ''News''<nowiki>'</nowiki> core coverage area of [[Framingham, Massachusetts|Framingham]] and [[Natick, Massachusetts]]. The ''News'', a 40,000-circulation daily, gave Harte-Hanks—and later CNC—a mid-sized daily newspaper to serve as a [[Flagship#Flagship in language|flagship]] for scattered weeklies and smaller dailies.

Northeast Group added the 79-year-old ''[[The Wellesley Townsman|Wellesley Townsman]]'' October 1, 1985, bought from owner Robert Linnell. The purchase was part of a push into the affluent suburb by the ''Middlesex News'', which also debuted a new edition of the daily paper there.<ref>Sleeper, Peter B. "Read All About It: 4 Newspapers Woo Wellesley -- and Ad Dollars". ''The Boston Globe'', page 21, October 23, 1985.</ref>

=== Transcript Newspapers Inc. ===
The publisher of two smaller daily newspapers, Transcript Newspapers Inc. was owned for years by [[Wisconsin]] publisher [[The Post-Crescent|Post Corporation]]. The papers' [[Typesetting|typesetters]] organized a long and at times violent strike in 1980, alleging unfair labor practices. Eleven reporters and editors at the Waltham paper were fired for refusing to cross a picket line; in all, about 60 Transcript employees were laid off for striking.<ref>"Employees Fired in Newspaper Strike". ''The Boston Globe'', page 1, July 26, 1980.</ref>

Between August 1984 and March 1986, the company was sold four times: to [[Gillett Communications]] in 1984; then to [[Thomson Newspapers]] that December; in April 1985 to [[William Dean Singleton]] (head of [[MediaNews Group]])<ref>Fox, Wendy. "Transcript Newspapers Sold for Third Time in 8 Months". ''The Boston Globe'', p. 32, April 23, 1985.</ref>—and eventually, in 1986, to Harte-Hanks.<ref>Adams, Jane Meredith. "Harte-Hanks Acquires Transcript Group". ''The Boston Globe'', March 14, 1986.</ref>

=== Century Newspapers ===
Harte-Hanks' purchase of Century Newspapers in mid-1986 added six weeklies to News-Transcript Group, in suburbs north and west of [[Boston]].<ref>"Newspapers Purchased". ''The Boston Globe'', page 75, May 7, 1986.</ref> Two of the newspapers remain part of [[Community Newspaper Company]] today: ''The Arlington Advocate'' and ''The Winchester Star''.

By the time Fidelity bought the newspapers, the ''Belmont Citizen'' and ''Belmont Herald'' had merged, the ''Watertown Sun'' had closed, and the ''Newton Transcript'' had merged with Northeast Group's ''Newton Graphic''.

The merger of the two [[Belmont, Massachusetts|Belmont]] papers was controversial. They had competed for 50 years when Century, publisher of the ''Citizen'', bought the less newsy ''Herald'' from publisher John Martin Jr. in early 1986. The ''Herald''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> editor, Robert Mead, urged Belmont residents to boycott his former paper, as the two "competitors" began collaborating their coverage and sharing staff, although initially they continued to publish separate editions.<ref>Pokorny, Brad. "Belmont: Two Weeklies or One? Some Object to Citizen's Purchase of Its Rival". ''The Boston Globe'', page 22, March 17, 1986.</ref>

== Properties ==
At the time of its sale to CNC, News-Transcript Group consisted of three daily and 11 weekly newspapers, all in [[Massachusetts]] (the papers' owners before 1986 are listed in parentheses):<ref name="News"/>
* ''[[The Daily News Transcript|Daily Transcript]]'' of [[Dedham, Massachusetts|Dedham]] (flagship of Transcript Newspapers)
* ''[[The MetroWest Daily News|Middlesex News]]'' (daily) of [[Framingham, Massachusetts|Framingham]] (flagship of Harte-Hanks' Northeast Group)
* ''[[The Daily News Tribune|News-Tribune]]'' (daily) of [[Waltham, Massachusetts|Waltham]] (Transcript)
* ''The Arlington Advocate'' of [[Arlington, Massachusetts|Arlington]] (Century Newspapers)
* ''Belmont Citizen-Herald'' of [[Belmont, Massachusetts|Belmont]] (Century; was two papers)
* ''Needham Chronicle'' of [[Needham, Massachusetts|Needham]] (Transcript)
* ''The Newton Graphic'' of [[Newton, Massachusetts|Newton]] (Century and Transcript; was two papers)
* ''Parkway Transcript'' of [[Roslindale, Massachusetts|Roslindale]], in [[Boston]] (Transcript)
* ''Sudbury Town Crier'' of [[Sudbury, Massachusetts|Sudbury]] (Northeast Group)
* ''Wayland Town Crier'' of [[Wayland, Massachusetts|Wayland]] (Northeast Group)
* ''Wellesley Townsman'' of [[Wellesley, Massachusetts|Wellesley]] (Northeast Group)
* ''West Roxbury Transcript'' of [[West Roxbury, Massachusetts|West Roxbury]], in [[Boston]] (Transcript)
* ''Weston Town Crier'' of [[Weston, Massachusetts|Weston]] (Northeast Group)
* ''The Winchester Star'' of [[Winchester, Massachusetts|Winchester]] (flagship of Century Newspapers)

All of these newspapers except the ''Newton Graphic'' and ''Needham Chronicle'' are still published by [[Community Newspaper Company]], now a division of [[GateHouse Media]], although the dailies' and Roslindale paper's names have changed. The Newton paper (itself the product of a merger) was merged with CNC's ''Newton Tab'' after the News-Transcript sale.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{CNC}}

[[Category:Mass media in Middlesex County, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:MetroWest]]
[[Category:Defunct newspaper companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts]]

News-Transcript Group - Revision history

imported>KansasC785 at 07:15, 11 July 2021