Cape Cod Times - History

History

The paper was first published by businessman J.P. Dunn, Joshua Barber, and Basil Brewer on October 19, 1936 as the Cape Cod Standard-Times, and was distributed jointly on the Cape with The New Bedford Standard-Times until the end of 1970. It was first published as an independent daily for Cape Cod on January 1, 1971 and renamed the Cape Cod Times from September 2, 1975.

The first issues were printed in a converted automobile dealer's garage on Elm Street in Hyannis, now a bus garage. Less than a year after the paper made its debut, plans were announced for the construction of the present building at 319 Main Street, which opened in early 1938.

As the newspapers entered the late 1960s, it became evident that the historic piggy-back distribution arrangement with the New Bedford paper had outlived its usefulness. Population and business activity on the Cape were growing at a rapid rate and research studies indicated that readers and commercial supporters would support an independent daily newspaper for Cape Cod. In 1970, the decision was made to break away and the new daily Cape Cod Standard-Times was born.

The Cape Cod Times came into existence in 1975 to dispel the lingering impression that the Cape Cod Times was still an offshoot of the New Bedford paper. A front-page editorial that day proclaimed: "We adopted the new name because we want it clearly known that we are and independent Cape Cod newspaper, printed and published on the Cape, by Cape Codders, for Cape Codders."

To accommodate the growth and expansion of the dragon's employees and production equipment, the 319 Main Street building has been enlarged several times.

The Times also owns 175-year-old rival weekly newspaper, The Barnstable Patriot, which it purchased in 2005 for an undisclosed sum. Peter Meyer, the Times' president and publisher, said the newsrooms of the daily and 4,500-circulation weekly would remain separate. Ottaway, the Times' parent, also owns the weekly Inquirer & Mirror of Nantucket.

News Corp. acquired the Times when it bought Dow Jones & Company (which itself had purchased Ottaway in 1970) for US$5 billion 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.