Ottaway Community Newspapers

Infobox Company
name = Ottaway Community Newspapers
company_
type = Subsidiary
foundation = November 1936
location = Campbell Hall, New York USA
locations =
key_people = Andrew Langhoff, CEO William A. Zurilla, VP and CFO
area_served =
industry =
products = Daily and weekly newspapers
services =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees = 1,500 in 2007
parent = Dow Jones, 1970-2007 News Corporation, since 2007
divisions =
subsid =
slogan =
homepage = [http://www.ottaway.com/ Ottaway.com]
footnotes =
intl =

Ottaway Community Newspapers (also called Ottaway Newspapers, Inc.) is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company Dow Jones which is itself a subsidiary of News Corporation and owns newspapers, Web sites and niche publications in California, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania. It is headquartered in Campbell Hall, New York and its flagship is the Times Herald-Record.

The Ottaway organization was founded in 1936 and grew to nine newspapers in the northeastern United States by 1970, when it merged with Dow Jones & Company, publisher of "The Wall Street Journal". [http://www.dowjones.com/Products_Services/CommunityMedia.htm DowJones.com Community Media] , accessed January 8, 2007.]

Ottaway became part of News Corp. when it bought Dow Jones for US$5 billion in in late 2007. Rupert Murdoch, 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.". [http://www.nepa.org/Bulletin%20Archives/NEPA_Bulletin_Dec07.pdf "NEPA Bulletin" (Boston, Mass.), December 2007] , page 3.] However, recent changes in management at Ottaway may indicate that News Corp. and Dow Jones have decided to retain Ottaway for the time being. [http://www.ottaway.com/news/07-24-2008.html]

Holdings

Ottaway currently publishes eight daily and 15 weekly newspapers in seven U.S. states. Ottaway's circulation was given in 2005 as 282,000 daily, 316,000 Sunday and 119,000 daily unique visitors on newspaper Internet sites."Dow Jones Completes Sale of Six Local Newspapers." Dow Jones & Company press release, December 5, 2006.]

Ottaway's daily newspapers are:
* "Ashland Daily Tidings" of Ashland, Oregon
* "Cape Cod Times" of Barnstable, Massachusetts
* "Mail Tribune" of Medford, Oregon
* "Pocono Record" of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania
* "The Portsmouth Herald" of Portsmouth, New Hampshire
* "The Record" of Stockton, California
* "The Standard-Times" of New Bedford, Massachusetts
* "Times Herald-Record" of Middletown, New York

Ottaway weekly and twice-weekly newspapers include the following:
* "The Barnstable Patriot" of Barnstable, Massachusetts
* "The Inquirer & Mirror" of Nantucket, Massachusetts
* Hathaway Publishing, published alongside "The Standard-Times":
** "The Advocate" of Fairhaven, Massachusetts
** "The Chronicle" of Dartmouth, Massachusetts
** "The Fall River Spirit" of Fall River, Massachusetts
** "Middleboro Gazette" of Middleborough, Massachusetts
** "The Spectator" of Somerset, Massachusetts
* Seacoast Media Group, published alongside "The Portsmouth Herald":
** "The Exeter News-Letter" of Exeter, New Hampshire (twice-weekly)
** "The Hampton Union" of Hampton, New Hampshire (twice-weekly)
** "The Rockingham News" of Plaistow, New Hampshire
** "York County Coast Star" of Kennebunk, Maine
** "The York Weekly" of York, Maine
* Hudson Valley Media Group, published alongside the "Times Herald-Record":
** "The Gazette" of Port Jervis, New York

History

James H. Ottaway, Sr., founded the company in November 1936, when he purchased the "Bulletin", a semi-weekly paper in Endicott, New York, that he converted to a daily within a year. Ottaway added the "Oneonta Star" in 1944, followed two years later by the "Pocono Record".

The company has been a seller more often than a buyer in the 2000s, however, and several observers -- including the "New York Post", "The Boston Globe" and Ottaway's own "Cape Cod Times" -- have speculated that News Corporation intends to sell all or part of the company in the near future.

Under Dow Jones' ownership, Ottaway sold several newspapers in recent years, however, most recently in December 2006, when the company dealt nearly half its daily newspapers to Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI) for $287.9 million (including real estate).

Until December 2006, the following dailies and weeklies were also part of the Ottaway chain. They are all now part of CNHI.
* "Santa Cruz Sentinel" daily of Santa Cruz, California
* "The News-Times" daily of Danbury, Connecticut
* "The Spectrum" weekly of Milford, Connecticut
* "Record-Eagle" daily of Traverse City, Michigan
* "The Grand Traverse Herald" weekly of Traverse City, Michigan
* "Cooperstown Crier" weekly of Cooperstown, New York
* "Daily Star" of Oneonta, New York
* "Press-Republican" of Plattsburgh, New York
* "Daily Item" of Sunbury, Pennsylvania
* "The Danville News" weekly of Danville, Pennsylvania

The following four daily newspapers were sold by Ottaway to CNHI for $182 million in 2002: [" [http://www.writenews.com/2002/022202_dowjones_sells_four_papers.htm Dow Jones To Sell Four Ottaway Newspapers] ", accessed January 8, 2007.]
* "The Daily Independent" of Ashland, Kentucky
* "The Free Press" of Mankato, Minnesota
* "The Herald" of Sharon, Pennsylvania
* "The Joplin Globe" of Joplin, Missouri

Also, Ottaway sold the three daily newspapers of Essex County Newspapers Inc. to "The Eagle-Tribune" of North Andover, Massachusetts, in 2002, for $70 million. [ [http://www.allbusiness.com/information/information-services-news-syndicates/209484-1.html "Bay State Paper Gets to Grow in Its Own Backyard"] . NewsInc, April 22, 2002. Accessed January 8, 2006.] "The Eagle-Tribune", along with the Essex papers listed below, was later purchased by CNHI.
* "Daily News of Newburyport" of Newburyport, Massachusetts
* "Gloucester Daily Times" of Gloucester, Massachusetts
* "Salem Evening News" of Salem, Massachusetts

External links

* [http://www.ottaway.com/ Ottaway Newspapers, Inc.]

Footnotes