The Newport Daily News

The Newport Daily News is a six-day daily newspaper serving Newport County, Rhode Island. It publishes in the mornings on weekdays (Monday through Friday) and in the morning on Saturdays. The Daily News was the state's largest family-owned newspaper until it was purchased by Gatehouse Media in 2017.

The Newport Daily News
August 15, 2011 cover of The Newport Daily News.
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Gatehouse Media
EditorWill Richmond
Founded1846
Headquarters272 Valley Road, Middletown, Rhode Island[1]
Circulation13,000 daily, 14,000 Saturday[2]
Websitenewportri.com

History
Large European beech in front of The Newport Daily News

Until its sale to Gatehouse Media, the Daily News had been locally owned since it was founded in 1846. It was named Newspaper of the Year by the New England Newspaper Association in 1991, 2001 and 2004.[2]

In 1970, the newspaper moved from Thames Street in downtown Newport to an office on Malbone Road in the northern part of the city, shortly after the completion of the nearby Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge.[3] In 2018, Gatehouse Media put the Malbone Road property up for sale, but the paper continued to be based out of the building until new office space in Newport can be found.[3] In March 2019, the paper's office moved to Middletown, Rhode Island.[1]

Sherman Publishing

Edward A. Sherman Publishing Company, the family-owned publisher of the Daily News, also prints three free weekly newspapers in southern Rhode Island: Mercury, a Wednesday alternative weekly covering Bristol, Newport and Washington counties; the Friday Newport Navlog, the U.S. Navy's oldest base newspaper (founded 1901), covering Naval Station Newport; and Ocean State Independent, mailed to non-Daily News subscribers on Aquidneck Island.[4]

The company also owned South County Newspapers, which publishes The Independent, a weekly newspaper covering the towns of South Kingstown (including the villages of Kingston, Peace Dale and Wakefield and the University of Rhode Island), Narragansett and North Kingstown. The Independent, formerly based in Wakefield, now shares office space with the Newport Daily News and Mercury in Newport.

Sherman Publishing and all of its publications were purchased by Gatehouse Media, which also owns The Providence Journal, in October 2017.[5]

In June 2018, Gatehouse sold South County Newspapers, The Independent and South County Life magazine to Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers.[6] In November 2018, publisher William Lucey and editor-in-chief Jon Zins both departed from the newspaper.[7]

Newport Mercury

The Mercury, another publication of the Daily News, traces a lineage as one the oldest newspapers in the country. The history of that publication dates back to 1758, when the widow and son of James Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's brother, established the Newport Mercury as a weekly publication, making Ann Franklin the first woman in the Colonies to publish and edit a newspaper.

The Mercury was published regularly up to the time the British landed in Newport, when the press and types were buried. (The press, also used by Solomon Southwick to print copies of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, can be seen in the Museum of Newport History in downtown Newport.) After the Revolutionary War, the Mercury was issued again.

The Mercury was the first paper to publish poetry by an African American woman, Phillis Wheatley.[8]

The Mercury was acquired by Edward A. Sherman, owner of the Newport Daily News in 1928.[9][10] It continued as a subscription weekly published by the Newport Daily News until March 2005, when it was relaunched as a free alternative newsweekly under the editorship of Janine Weisman. The current iteration of the paper covers arts, entertainment, food and culture in Newport County.

Since the Mercury ceased publication during the Revolutionary War, and was acquired by Sherman in 1928, Hartford Courant and the Mercury's publisher have a longstanding debate over which is older. The Courant has long identified itself as the longest "continuously published" newspaper in the United States.[11]

In April 2018, it was announced by editor Janine Weisman that the Mercury would no longer publish a weekly print edition, effective with the April 27 issue.[12] The paper would continue as a monthly insert of the Newport Daily News[12]. The first of these new monthly Mercury editions was published on June 7, 2018 as both an insert in the Newport Daily News and as a stand-alone free newspaper.[13] This montly edition of the Mercury was no longer being published by the time Weisman left the Daily News in August 2019.[14]

Prices

The Newport Daily News prices are: $1.50 Monday-Friday and $2 on Saturday.

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References
  1. Gomes, Derek. "Newport Daily News prepares for its next chapter". The Newport Daily News. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  2. NewportDailyNews.com: About Us, accessed March 7, 2007.
  3. Flynn, Sean. "Newport Daily News property for sale". The Newport Daily News. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  4. "The Newport Daily News Advertising Rates", January 1, 2007. Accessed March 7, 2007.
  5. Anderson, Patrick. "Providence Journal parent buys publisher of Newport Daily News". providencejournal.com. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  6. Kittredge, Dan. "GateHouse Media sells Independent newspaper, South County Life to newspaper group". The Newport Daily News. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  7. Flynn, Sean. "Publisher, top editor leaving The Newport Daily News". The Newport Daily News. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  8. Vrabel, Jim (2004). When in Boston: A Time Line & Almanac. Northeastern University Press. p. 66. ISBN 9781555536213.
  9. (7 April 1928). Paper 190 Years Old in Merger, The New York Times
  10. (19 June 1958). Newport Mercury Observes 200th Anniversary Today, Lewistown Evening Journal (Associated Press story)
  11. (8 August 2013). Which N.E. paper is oldest is consequence of definition, New England Newspaper and Press Association e-Bulletin
  12. Weisman, Janine. "Editor's note: Turning the page". The Newport Daily News. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  13. Barrett, Scott. "Newport Mercury returns on Thursday". The Newport Daily News. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  14. Weisman, Janine (16 August 2019). "Tweet from @j9weisman". @j9weisman. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
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