with beacon pictures . type private industry newspapers founded 1969 headquarters 1944 warwick avenue warwick rhode island 02889 united states key people john i. howell jr. publisher richard g. fleischer general manager products three weekly newspapers in rhode island website warwickonline.com beacon communications is a privately owned newspaper publisher serving the suburban rhode island cities of cranston johnston and warwick . begun in 1969 by john howell and anthony ritacco as a vehicle to purchase the warwick beacon the company was called southern rhode island publications until 1987 . howell took sole possession of the company in the 1980s with richard fleischer coming on as the general manager . contents 1 properties 2 sisters and competitors 3 references 4 external links properties edit in addition to its three weekly newspapers beacon publishes the penny aver shopper in cranston and warwick ; chamberworks a business publication ; and primetime a seniors oriented monthly magazine distributed statewide . cranston herald founded in 1922 the herald was for a long time run by rosalie frost a former rockette who in the 1930s became a groundbreaking female journalist . she sold the paper to beacon shortly after 1973 when the company had started a competing weekly cranston today . the papers were merged under the herald name . today s herald is a paid subscription thursday paper . 1 today dan kittredge serves as editor while howell remains as publisher . johnston sun rise beacon purchased the weekly johnston sun rise in 2006 . the paper is set up as a tabloid and is free of charge . it is also edited by dan kittredge . warwick beacon the company s flagship publication the warwick beacon dates back to november 19 1953 . it switched from weekly to twice weekly publication currently tuesdays and thursdays in the 1970s . the sports section for the paper is run by a two person team that also edits the sports section for the herald . under the direction of editor william geoghegan and assistant editor kevin pomeroy the department covers a total of seven high schools between the three cities . 2 howell remains an active reporter for the paper in addition to his role as editor in chief . sisters and competitors edit in addition to the former cranston today the company has launched several other complementary products . beacon founded the coventry townsman and seekonk sentinel in the early 1970s later selling them to other owners ; and newport today now called newport this week . 2 beacon s papers compete with the providence journal in the state s capital city which borders johnston and cranston . all three beacon newspapers are members of rhode island newspaper group an advertising sales consortium that consists of five weekly newspaper publishers in suburban providence . beacon is the coordinating office for the group ; other members are breeze publications east bay newspapers hathaway publishing and southern rhode island newspapers . 3 references edit cranstononline history accessed march 8 2007 . a b warwickonline history accessed march 8 2007 . rinewspapergroup.com accessed march 24 2007 . external links edit cranston herald online warwick beacon online retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title beacon communications publisher & oldid 728811105 categories newspaper companies of the united statesnewspapers published in rhode islandkent county rhode islandprovidence county rhode islandpublishing companies established in 1969 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 7 july 2016 at 20 24 . 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