Wasserman
Under Wasserman, who began the company with his purchase of the Amesbury News in 1958, the company gradually expanded until it included nine weekly newspapers down the seacoast toward Boston. In the 12 months ending August 31, 1986, the company made US$7.6 million in revenues and turned a profit.
After selling the papers, Wasserman gave US$700,000 out of the proceeds in bonuses to his staff, distributed based on how long they had worked for the company. Some employees were given as much as US$20,000.
But Wasserman could be a severe businessman, too. For 2½ years in the 1980s, he competed for readers in two North Shore towns with former employee Joseph Fenton, who bought an independent newspaper in Ipswich -- home of North Shore Weeklies' main offices, at the time—in 1981. A year later, Fenton started a new paper in Georgetown, and Wasserman responded by following him there, with the Georgetown Record. Both publishers said they were being unfairly targeted by the other.
In 1983, Wasserman emerged the winner of the "Georgetown Newspaper War", purchasing Fenton's Ipswich Today and Georgetown Weekly.
Read more about this topic: North Shore Weeklies