1973 headquarters 121 wawarme avenue hartford connecticut united states area served connecticut products alternative weekly parent tribune company website www.ctnow.com newspaper box for fairfield county weekly ctnow is a free weekly newspaper in central and southwestern connecticut published by new mass . media inc. new mass . media was privately owned until 1999 when its owners including founding publisher geoffrey robinson sold the company to the hartford courant for an undisclosed sum . a year later courant parent company times mirror was bought by the tribune company based in chicago . in 2013 the hartford advocate new haven advocate and fairfield county weekly were merged with the courant s calendar section and website ctnow to create the weekly paper ctnow . 1 contents 1 history 2 former properties 2.1 fairfield county weekly 2.2 hartford advocate 2.3 valley advocate 3 references 4 external links history edit the company was founded in 1973 by geoffrey robinson and edward matys then copy editors at the hartford courant . robinson a native of new haven connecticut worked as wire service editor of the daily lorain journal of ohio after his graduation from yale university in 1971 . matys had worked in editorial positions at several massachusetts and connecticut newspapers . the pair began publishing the valley advocate a bi weekly serving western massachusetts in september 1973 from small basement offices in amherst massachusetts . in september 1974 the valley advocate began publishing weekly ; robinson and matys opened offices in hartford and started publication of the hartford advocate . a year later in september 1975 the pair began publishing the weekly new haven advocate and in 1978 started publication of the fairfield county advocate subsequently renamed fairfield county weekly to avoid confusion with the neighboring and unrelated stamford advocate . in 1999 the four paper chain was sold to times mirror which was itself acquired by tribune in 2000 . tribune announced in december 2007 that it would sell the valley advocate its only massachusetts publication to newspapers of new england . 2 former properties edit advocate weeklies offered investigative journalism national state and local political coverage commentary and arts features and criticism mostly from a liberal or countercultural point of view . they shared some editorial content but each had regionally focused news and opinion pieces restaurant reviews event listings and advertisements . the newspapers had annual best of write in contests and subsequent issues that featured the winning businesses . the advocates accepted a wider variety of advertisements than mainstream newspapers including ads for strip clubs erotic massage services adult book and video stores and the like which columnists and readers argued conflict with the newspapers avowed feminism . fairfield county weekly edit the fairfield county weekly was distributed throughout fairfield county . its average weekly circulation was 26 708 in 2011 . citation needed hartford advocate edit hartford advocate the hartford advocate was published in hartford connecticut and had a circulation of 37 779 in 2011 . citation needed the hartford advocate was founded in 1974 by geoffrey robinson and edward matys to fill a void in investigative and beat reporting in the capital city of connecticut . for example the hartford courant where robinson and matys had previously worked did not routinely cover one of the city s largest industries insurance . the founding editors included managing editor dick polman recruited from the new london day and city editor bruce kauffman from the courant where as a police and general assignment reporter he discovered that a heavily traveled bridge around the corner from the state capitol was being held up by a telephone pole . citation needed gail collins reported on state government and politics ; she is now an op ed columnist at the new york times . another early reporter was david lieberman who was later an editorial writer for the courant and covered the media business for usa today . polman left the advocate after some five years to become a columnist at the courant and later joined the philadelphia inquirer as national political correspondent . he also taught at the university of pennsylvania . kauffman later worked for cnn taught at emerson college in boston morehouse college in atlanta and the university of wisconsin madison . he also worked for the north county times one of two daily newspapers in san diego county california . in a history of the alternative media a trumpet to arms author david armstrong described the advocate as a bastion for the new muckrakers . the author explored the paper s examination of the behind the scenes power exercised by the corporate elite in hartford . kauffman had reported that top banks and insurance companies including travelers were funneling the bulk of city pension fund money into companies that propped up the apartheid regime in south africa . the city of hartford would end up divesting the south africa related investments . polman notes in the acknowledgements for dateline connecticut i had originally hoped to thank the publishers of the hartford advocate for allowing me to reprint some of my subject to change columns but they denied me access to my work citing my gravitation to the courant . 3 valley advocate edit advocate weekly newspapers formerly published the valley advocate a similar alternative weekly in easthampton massachusetts covering the greater springfield area and the pioneer valley of western massachusetts . it began as an independent newspaper in 1973 and was sold in late 2007 to newspapers of new england parent of its competitor the daily hampshire gazette of northampton massachusetts . 2 references edit connecticut portal paul bass . new haven advocate 1975 2013 . new haven independent . a b cain chad . gazette s owners set to buy valley advocate . daily hampshire gazette northampton mass . december 12 2007 . spoonwood press hartford 1983 external links edit official website v t e tronc inc. the baltimore sun media group the baltimore sun the aegis the capital carroll county times catonsville times maryland gazette chicago tribune media group chicago tribune the beacon news chicago chicagonow the courier news daily southtown forsalebyowner.com hoy lake county news sun metromix naperville naperville sun pioneer press post tribune redeye daily press media group daily press tidewater review the virginia gazette hartford courant media hartford courant ctnow hartford remindernews california media group los angeles times the san diego union tribune daily pilot hoy huntington beach independent burbank leader glendale news press morning call media group the morning call orlando sentinel media group orlando sentinel el sentinel sun sentinel media group sun sentinel forum publishing group florida jewish journal el sentinel del sur de la florida retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ctnow & oldid 726443155 categories newspapers published in connecticutalternative weekly newspapers published in the united statesmedia in fairfield county connecticutmedia in bridgeport connecticutmedia in hartford connecticutmedia in hartford county connecticutmedia in new haven connecticutmedia in new haven county connecticut1973 establishments in connecticutpublishing companies established in 1973tronc inc.hidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from august 2012articles with unsourced statements from april 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 22 june 2016 at 06 03 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view