The Sun Chronicle

Infobox_Newspaper
name = The Sun Chronicle


caption =
type = Daily newspaper
format = Broadsheet
foundation = March 1, 1971
price = USD .50 daily, 1.75 Sunday
owners = United Communications Corporation
publisher = Oreste P. D'Arconte
editor = Mike Kirby
circulation = 17,777 daily, 18,634 Sunday [ [http://www.thesunchronicle.com/pdf/retail_8page.pdf "The Sun Chronicle" Advertising Rate Card] , accessed October 5, 2008.]
headquarters = 34 South Main Street, Attleboro, Massachusetts 02703 USA
website = [http://www.thesunchronicle.com www.thesunchronicle.com]

"The Sun Chronicle" (formerly "The Attleboro Sun" and the "Evening Chronicle") is a daily newspaper in Attleboro, Massachusetts, USA. Most of its readers are in Attleboro and North Attleborough, Massachusetts, but it also covers nearby Foxborough, Mansfield, Norfolk, Norton, Plainville, Rehoboth, Seekonk, and Wrentham, Massachusetts.

"The Sun Chronicle" office also publishes the weekly "Foxboro Reporter", weekly shopper "Entertainment ADvisor", and the "Silver City Bulletin" in Taunton, Massachusetts.

In February 2005, "The Sun Chronicle" began publishing in the morning after decades as an afternoon newspaper. [Reilly, Tom. "Welcome to Journalism 101." "The Sun Chronicle" (Attleboro, Mass.), February 22, 2005.]

As of June 2007 its circulation was growing, bucking the trend across much of the newspaper business. Meanwhile, its web site averaged 11,000 visitors a day in the first half of the year. [Kirby, Mike. "Good News at Newspaper." "The Sun Chronicle" (Attleboro, Mass.), July 8, 2007.] A redesigned web site was quietly launched in April 2008.

Beginnings

"The Sun Chronicle" was founded in 1971 by Guy S. DeVany, who merged "The Attleboro Sun" (1889-1971), of which he was publisher, with "The Evening Chronicle" of North Attleborough (1871-1971). An advertisement on the back cover of the 12-page final edition of "The Attleboro Sun" declared: "The new "Sun Chronicle" will be an adventure in print . . . stimulating . . . provocative . . . at times disturbing . . . always interesting." The 20-page first issue of "The Sun Chronicle" was published on March 1, 1971. [Advertisement. "The Attleboro Sun" (Attleboro, Mass.), p. 12, February 27, 1971.]

The North Attleborough "Evening Chronicle" began February 3, 1871 as "The Attleborough Chronicle", a 4-page weekly founded by Walter Phillips, a Providence newspaperman whose wife was Attleboro native Francena Capron. Phillips moved the newspaper's headquarters to North Attleboro in January 1873. Its name was changed to the North Attleborough "Evening Chronicle" in 1887, when the town of North Attleborough split from Attleboro. ["Sun Chronicle Combination of Dedication, Tradition." "The Sun Chronicle" (Attleboro, Mass.), p. 1, March 1, 1971.]

"The Attleboro Sun" published its first issue September 3, 1889. For decades the two papers were friendly rivals.

The "Chronicle" was a small newspaper with big connections; for most of its history, its publisher was the prominent Republican Congressman Joseph W. Martin, Jr., who served in the House from 1925 to 1967 and was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1949 and again from 1953 to 1955. Martin ran the "Chronicle" for six decades, and gave North Attleboro a reputation for conservatism.

The "Attleboro Sun", for its part, was sold by a group of local businessmen in 1906 to John S. Vallette, an advertising salesman for "The Providence Journal". He appointed a 19-year-old reporter, Charles C. Cain, Jr., as the paper's editor.

Vallette expanded the newspaper's reach, and pushed for Attleboro to adopt a city form of government, which it did in 1914. Then in 1929, Cain became the newspaper's publisher, and in 1933 he appointed Clarence D. Roberts as editor. Roberts remained with the paper for about half a century, in later years contributing columns from Florida.

Merger

In 1957, Charles Cain sold the "Sun" to a group of local businessmen. DeVany, who published newspapers in the Midwest, replaced Cain. His tenure was marked by the "Sun"'s modernization. In 1969, it was he who engineered the sale of the paper to Howard J. Brown and United Communications Corporation. Meanwhile, Joe Martin died in 1968, and two years later his brother sold the "Chronicle" to United Communications Corp., too.

The "Sun" and the "Chronicle" operated separately under the same ownership for one year until they merged in March 1971 and became "The Sun Chronicle". At the time, their combined circulation was 16,000.

DeVany and General Manager Paul A. Rixon modernized the new "Sun Chronicle", expanded its facilities, and boosted its circulation. For example, "The Sun Chronicle" was the first newspaper to convert from hot-type production to offset printing.

DeVany retired in 1983, and Rixon, who had been with the paper since 1960, took over as publisher. [Schoetz, David. "Guy DeVany, 91; Oversaw Creation of Sun Chronicle". "The Boston Globe", December 1, 2003.] He continued the "Sun Chronicle"'s modernization, and also acquired "The Foxboro Reporter" in 1986. Rixon launched a Sunday edition of "The Sun Chronicle" in 1989.

Rixon retired in 1998, and was replaced as publisher by General Manager Oreste P. D'Arconte, who had joined "The Attleboro Sun" as a reporter in 1969. D'Arconte launched "The Sun Chronicle"'s web site in January 1999. ["History of "The Sun Chronicle"." February 2007.]

United Communications Corporation, which owns "The Sun Chronicle", also owns two other dailies, the "Kenosha News" of Wisconsin and "Watertown Public Opinion" of South Dakota. [ [http://www.dirksvanessen.com/article.asp?newsId=96&categoryId=1 "Family Tradition will Continue in Watertown, SD," dirksvanessen.com] , March 31, 2002.]

References

External links

* [http://www.thesunchronicle.com TheSunChronicle.com]