Medford Daily Mercury

Medford Daily Mercury
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Tribune Publications Inc.
Publisher Daniel J. Horgan
Editor Stephen Freker
Founded 1880
Headquarters 277 Commercial Street, Malden, Massachusetts 02148  United States
Circulation 14,000 in 2003 when combined with Malden Evening News[1]
Website MaldenNews.com

The Medford Daily Mercury is an independent five-day (Monday through Friday) daily newspaper covering the city of Medford, Massachusetts.

Publisher Daniel J. Horgan has owned the Daily Mercury and its sister paper, the Malden Evening News, since purchasing the Daily News-Mercury in 1996. Although Horgan restored separate titles for Medford and Malden, Massachusetts, on any given day the two newspapers look almost identical, except for front-page stories.

History

The public face of the Medford Daily Mercury through much of the late 20th century was David Brickman, who became its publisher in 1947, bought the Malden News in 1953 and acquired the Melrose News, a former newspaper in neighboring Melrose, in 1969. Brickman was active in press associations and civic and governmental affairs—he helped campaign for Massachusetts' Open Meeting Law and served on the state Ethics Commission.[2]

Brickman, who was known to Boston-area viewers of the "Starring the Editors" television program as an outspoken regular panelist, called his final years at the helm of the three newspapers "a struggle in an antipathetic atmosphere." He sold his 75 percent interest in the papers for $1 million to Malden businessman and minority shareholder Warren H. Jackson in 1989.[3]

The move kept the paper in local hands, although Brickman had seemed ready to sell to a Rupert Murdoch-owned company, for more money, a year earlier. Reports in 1988 had Murdoch, who at the time owned the Boston Herald and WFXT-TV in nearby Boston, negotiating a price between US$ 5 million and US$ 10 million.[4]

At the time of the sale to Jackson, the three papers covered four towns—the Malden News published an edition in Everett, Massachusetts -- with a reported combined circulation of 11,300. Jackson announced he would save money by combining the three papers into one edition.[3] This move created the Daily News-Mercury in 1990.[5]

Another of Jackson's cost-cutting measures was the subject of a union picket in 1994. Despite a contract that guaranteed "lifelong employment", he fired the papers' typographers. One union member complained that the Daily News-Mercury had been "in bankruptcy for the last year; they owe us more than US$ 100,000 in pension money; they haven't given us a raise in eight years".[6]

The underfunded pension later caused the sheriff's office to close the Daily News-Mercury temporarily in June 1995.[7]

In 1996, the Daily News-Mercury was bought for US$ 650,000 by its current owner, Daniel J. Horgan, a publisher of weekly newspapers in the Boston area.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Circulation in Local Daily Newspaper Markets", based on Burrelle's Media Directory, 2003.
  2. ↑ "David Brickman, 82; Was Publisher of Malden, Melrose, Medford Papers". Obituary. The Boston Globe, June 19, 1992.
  3. 1 2 Mehegan, David. "Sharehold Buys Ailing Malden News". The Boston Globe, June 29, 1989.
  4. ↑ Yoo, John C. "Murdoch Unit Eyes Malden-Based Chain". The Boston Globe, July 22, 1988.
  5. 1 2 "Business Review Highlights of the Week". The Boston Globe, August 4, 1996.
  6. ↑ Lewis, Diane E. "Malden Paper Lays Off Workers". The Boston Globe, November 16, 1994.
  7. ↑ "Sheriff Reportedly Closes Newspaper". The Boston Globe, June 20, 1995.
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