bridge press the publishing company in berkeley california . stonebridge press inc. type private industry newspapers founded october 27 1995 headquarters 25 elm street southbridge massachusetts 01550 united states key people frank g. chilinski president & publisher ronald j. tremblay chief financial officer jim dinicola operations director julie clarke art director jean ashton advertising manager products southbridge evening news and several weekly newspapers in connecticut and massachusetts website www.stonebridgepress.com stonebridge press inc. is a privately held newspaper company based in southbridge massachusetts . it was formed october 27 1995 to operate the newspapers acquired through the purchase of worcester county newspapers . 1 in addition to its massachusetts operations the company owns the salmon press group of weekly newspapers of new hampshire and also publishes four weekly newspapers in northeast connecticut under the name villager newspapers . in total stonebridge press inc. publishes 23 newspapers with reaching over 200 000 households in massachusetts connecticut new hampshire and vermont . the company also publishes niche publications specialty guides special sections and websites . all stonebridge and salmon products are also available online . the southbridge news is the flagship publication of stonebridge press which is headquartered at the historic news building 25 elm street southbridge . in addition to the daily newspaper and back office functions the southbridge office houses the company s sports department town to town classifieds section several of stonebridge s weekly newspapers and at a remote location the former american optical plant the printing presses . in addition to the daily paper stonebridge press publishes three paid subscription weeklies all with circulations below 3 000 ; and eight total market news weeklies delivered to every home in the towns they cover . this section s use of external links may not follow wikipedia s policies or guidelines . please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references . june 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message newspaper type office towns covered auburn news paid southbridge auburn blackstone valley tribune free southbridge douglas northbridge uxbridge charlton villager free southbridge charlton killingly villager free putnam brooklyn killingly putnam villager free putnam putnam spencer new leader free southbridge brookfield leicester north brookfield spencer west brookfield east brookfield sturbridge villager free southbridge sturbridge brimfield holland wales thompson villager free putnam thompson the webster times free southbridge dudley oxford webster winchendon courier paid winchendon winchendon woodstock villager free putnam eastford pomfret woodstock throughout its distribution area stonebridge s primary competitor is the daily telegram & gazette of worcester . it also competes in winchendon with the gardner news in connecticut with the norwich bulletin and in the blackstone valley with the milford daily news . contents 1 history 1.1 worcester county newspapers 1.2 attempts to stay afloat 1.3 local focus returns 2 references history edit former executives with capital cities abc purchased the newspapers that now make up stonebridge in a foreclosure sale from loren f. ghiglione in 1995 . the price was not disclosed . the deal brokered by fidelity investments community newspaper company subsidiary one of ghiglione s largest creditors suddenly ended a 26 year run of media expansion described by one observer as loren ghiglione s news empire . 2 worcester county newspapers edit ghiglione s quarter century foray in central massachusetts journalism known in its final years as worcester county newspapers began when he purchased the southbridge evening news from its founding mcnitt family in 1969 . throughout the 1970s and 1980s he acquired weekly newspapers specialty publications and shoppers in adjacent communities some 20 in all . by 1988 the chain had a circulation of 241 000 said to be the largest overall readership of any publishing company in the region . ghiglione also oversaw a healthy commercial printing operation at the newspaper presses . in addition to the evening news and what became the stonebridge weeklies worcester county newspapers included several titles that were eventually folded the voice a weekly covering boylston northborough shrewsbury and westborough massachusetts ; wachusett people a shopper in holden and west boylston massachusetts ; a chain of three weekender shoppers in southern worcester county ; the observer patriot a weekly in putnam connecticut ; and the jaffrey rindge chronicle in jaffrey new hampshire . by the end of the decade however ghiglione s empire began to look overextended and uneconomic . in 1986 he had paid us 3 million for two state of the art presses at worcester county newspapers auburn plant . in 1987 he d bought worcester magazine an alternative newsweekly with a large staff . as the 1990s approached the region entered an economic recession tanking demand for commercial printing while newsprint costs went up . in 1992 the competitor telegram & gazette daily in worcester beefed up its suburban coverage with zoned editions dealing another setback to worcester county newspapers . 2 attempts to stay afloat edit the company s profits in 1985 were estimated at us 1 million per year . ten years later the company was us 3.5 million in long term debt with another us 1.9 million in unpaid bills . ghiglione attempted to stay afloat by reorganizing . he had already sold worcester magazine in 1990 ; in early 1995 he shuttered the shrewsbury holden and putnam papers which were losing money . the evening news dropped its saturday edition and switched to tabloid sized newsprint . the auburn printing plant was sold to community newspaper company . 3 following the loss of the auburn plant the remaining newspapers were printed by contract with turley publications presses in palmer massachusetts . 1 it wasn t enough . ghiglione was bankrupt and deeded the company over to community newspaper in october effectively firing his 87 employees . only 58 were rehired by stonebridge . the papers were said to have a combined circulation of 90 000 at the time of the sale far less than half the company s peak readership in the 1980s . 2 local focus returns edit ghiglione who had built a reputation as a scholar of journalism became a professional in residence at the newseum a museum of journalism in washington d.c. 1 at the time of the sale some of ghiglione s former associates faulted him for spending too much time on news theory and high flown journalism and not enough on basic community news . george geers a longtime southbridge evening news editor said he was very good and very successful at playing the role of a small town editor who could mingle and hold his own with big city big paper publishers . ... but the issues he was really concerned with were not the local issues . the people of southbridge were concerned with overcrowding at the high school or building a new police station and loren just wasn t all that interested in those things . stonebridge press expanded into northeastern connecticut in 2005 by launching the putnam villager and two later three other free weekly newspapers all under the villager banner . the villager name is also used for new free weekly newspapers started in july 2007 as the sturbridge villager serving every home in sturbridge massachusetts as well as every home in wales holland and brimfield massachusetts . at the same time the company launched the charlton villager reaching every home in charlton massachusetts . 4 it also marked a period of change in circulation and distribution as the webster times spencer new leader and blackstone valley tribune were converted to free total market coverage weeklies mailed to each home in the papers coverage areas . by remaining relentlessly local the company has been successful in outperforming larger daily newspapers even during the economic turbulence of 2008 2013 . references edit a b c gushue harold . county newspapers chain has new owners . telegram & gazette worcester mass . october 28 1995 . a b c pope chris . the rise and fall of loren ghiglione s news empire . telegram & gazette worcester mass . page e1 november 26 1995 . gushue harold . local paper shuts plant ; worcester county newspapers to contract . telegram & gazette worcester mass . march 25 1995 . http interestalert.com story 07250000aaa03871 . prn siteia publishi publishing.html retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title stonebridge press & oldid 733133014 categories newspapers published in massachusettsmedia in worcester county massachusettshidden categories wikipedia external links cleanup from june 2011wikipedia spam cleanup from june 2011 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 fran ais edit links this page was last modified on 5 august 2016 at 16 17 . 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