The Sun Chronicle - Merger

Merger

In 1957, Charles Cain sold the Sun to a group of local businessmen. DeVany, who published newspapers in the Midwest, replaced Cain. His tenure was marked by the Sun's modernization. In 1969, it was he who engineered the sale of the paper to Howard J. Brown and United Communications Corporation. Meanwhile, Joe Martin died in 1968, and two years later his brother sold the Chronicle to United Communications Corp., too.

The Sun and the Chronicle operated separately under the same ownership for one year until they merged in March 1971 and became The Sun Chronicle. At the time, their combined circulation was 16,000.

DeVany and General Manager Paul A. Rixon modernized the new Sun Chronicle, expanded its facilities, and boosted its circulation. For example, The Sun Chronicle says it was the first newspaper to convert from hot-type production to offset printing.

DeVany retired in 1983, and Rixon, who had been with the paper since 1960, took over as publisher. He continued the Sun Chronicle's modernization, and also acquired The Foxboro Reporter in 1986. Rixon launched a Sunday edition of The Sun Chronicle in 1989.

Rixon retired in 1998, and was replaced as publisher by General Manager Oreste P. D'Arconte, who had joined The Attleboro Sun as a reporter in 1969. D'Arconte launched The Sun Chronicle's web site in January 1999.

As of June 2007 The Sun Chronicle's circulation was growing - though that trend reversed in the following years - while its website averaged 11,000 visitors a day in the first half of 2007. A redesigned web site was quietly launched in April 2008.

United Communications Corporation, which owns The Sun Chronicle, also owns two other dailies, the Kenosha News of Wisconsin and Watertown Public Opinion of South Dakota.