Dow Jones Local Media Group - History

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 (decade), 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
  • Traverse City 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:

  • The 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. 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

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