The Enterprise (Brockton)

Infobox Newspaper
name = The Enterprise


caption = The April 6, 2007 front page of
"The Enterprise"
type = Daily newspaper
format = Broadsheet
foundation = ca. 1881
ceased publication =
price = US$0.50 daily
owners = GateHouse Media
publisher = Kirk A. Davis
editor = Chazy Dowaliby
circulation = 31,352 daily, 36,824 Sunday in 2007 [Audit Bureau of Circulations [http://www.accessabc.com "e-Circ"] data for six months ending March 31, 2007.]
headquarters = 60 Main Street, Brockton, Massachusetts 02303 USA
ISSN =
website = [http://enterprise.southofboston.com/ enterprise.southofboston.com]

"The Enterprise" is an afternoon daily newspaper published in Brockton, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper is considered a newspaper of record for Brockton and several suburban communities of northern Bristol and Plymouth counties, and southern Norfolk County, Massachusetts.

Owned in common for a decade with one of its chief competitors, "The Patriot Ledger" of Quincy, "The Enterprise" in mid-2006 was purchased, along with "The Patriot Ledger", by GateHouse Media, which also owns several nearby weekly newspapers and later purchased "The Enterprise's" other local competitor, the "Taunton Daily Gazette".

History

The Fuller-Thompson family owned "The Enterprise" for 115 years prior to its 1996 sale to joint venture headed by incumbent president Myron F. Fuller and new majority owner James F. Plugh, who was said to have paid between US$20 million and US$30 million. Plugh formed a new corporate parent for the paper, Newspaper Media Corporation, and expressed a desire to buy other New England newspapers. The newspaper's circulation at the time was 50,000, daily, and 62,000, Sunday. [Muller, Joann. "Brockton Enterprise Will Be Purchased by New Media Company." "The Boston Globe", July 25, 1996.]

After unsuccessfully pursuing the "Gazette", Plugh in 1997 purchased "The Patriot Ledger" and its chain of weeklies, Memorial Press Group, paying an estimated US$60 million to US$70 million. [Blanton, Kimberly. "Low Family will Sell Patriot Ledger to the Owners of Brockton Enterprise." "The Boston Globe", October 4, 1997.] As newspapers moved to the Internet, the two afternoon dailies -- whose reporters competed in 12 suburban towns -- established a common Website, [http://www.southofboston.com/ southofboston.com] .

Six years later, however, Plugh yielded a majority stake in what was now known as Enterprise NewsMedia to Heritage Partners Inc., an investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. Heritage was said to have paid US$113 million to buy into "The Enterprise", "The Patriot Ledger" and Memorial Press Group. [Healey, Beth. "Ledger, Enterprise Sell Majority Stake." "The Boston Globe", April 9, 2003.] Plugh remained on board as publisher until 2004, when he became vice president of Enterprise NewsMedia and hired Kirk A. Davis as publisher. [Gatlin, Greg. "South Shore Papers Get Publisher, CEO Davis." "Boston Herald", July 16, 2004.]

In 2006, Enterprise NewsMedia was sold to Liberty Publishing, which changed its name to GateHouse Media, as part of a massive, US$225 million deal including Community Newspaper Company and its four Massachusetts dailies.

In February 2007, The Enterprise was named "Newspaper of the Year" by the New England Press Association. NEPA also named Enterprise managing editor Steve Damish "Journalist of the Year" for his drug addiction series titled "Wasted Youth." [NEPA Better Newspaper Contest 2007, http://nepawards.cpsgpageflip.com]

References

External links

* [http://enterprise.southofboston.com "The Enterprise"]
* [http://www.gatehousemedia.com GateHouse Media]