The Eagle-Tribune

Infobox Newspaper
name = The Eagle-Tribune


caption =
type = Daily newspaper
format = Broadsheet
foundation = 1868, as "Lawrence Daily Eagle"
ceased publication =
price =
owners = Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.
publisher = Al Getler
editor =
language =
political =
circulation = 47,072 daily, 49,056 Sunday in 2007.Audit Bureau of Circulation [http://www.accessabc.com/products/freereports.htm e-Circ data] for the six months ending March 31, 2007, accessed July 8, 2007.]
headquarters = 100 Turnpike Street, North Andover, Massachusetts 01845 USA
oclc =
ISSN =
website = [http://www.eagletribune.com/ eagletribune.com]

"The Eagle-Tribune" (and "Sunday Eagle-Tribune") is a seven-day morning daily newspaper covering the Merrimack Valley and Essex County, Massachusetts, and southern New Hampshire. It is the largest-circulation daily newspaper owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., and the lead property in a regional chain of four dailies and several weekly newspapers in Essex County and southern New Hampshire.

Although "The Eagle-Tribune" is historically tied to Lawrence, Massachusetts, the largest city in its circulation area, it has been based since the 1960s in suburban North Andover, Massachusetts, and has not included "Lawrence" in its nameplate since the late 1980s.Crane, Joyce Pellino. "The Eagle-Tribune Presses On." "The Boston Globe", September 22, 2005.]

Awards

During the late 1980s, "The Eagle-Tribune" ran nearly 200 articles on Michael Dukakis and the Massachusetts prison furlough program. The series was widely credited for ending furlough for first-degree murderers in Massachusetts, and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. [ [http://www.pulitzer.org/cyear/1988w.html Pulitzer.org: Pulitzer Prize Winners, 1988] , accessed July 8, 2007.] The paper won another Pulitzer in 2003 for its coverage of the drowning deaths of four Lawrence boys in the Merrimack River. [ [http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2003/breaking-news-reporting/ Pulitzer.org: 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting] , accessed July 8, 2007.]

In the late 1980s through the 1990s, "The Eagle-Tribune" was consistently named New England Newspaper of the Year and earned a reputation for quality journalism."Irving E. Rogers Jr., 68; Publisher of Eagle-Tribune". Obituary. "Telegram & Gazette" (Worcester, Mass.), May 22, 1998.]

History

Before its 2005 sale to CNHI, "The Eagle-Tribune" and its predecessors had been owned by the Rogers family for more than 100 years, dating back to the purchase of the "Lawrence Daily Eagle" (founded as a morning paper in 1868) and "Evening Tribune" (founded in Lawrence in 1890) by "Eagle" reporter Alexander H. Rogers in 1898. [http://plus.eagletribune.com/ze/info/companyhistory.htm EagleTribune.com: About Us] , accessed July 8, 2007.]

Rogers passed the role of publisher to his son, Irving E. Rogers Sr., in 1942; he passed it along to his son, Irving Jr., 40 years later. After his death in 1998, the fourth and last generation of Rogers owners took over, in the person of Irving E. "Chip" Rogers III.

During the first Irving Rogers' tenure, the "Lawrence Eagle-Tribune" was founded in 1959 by finally merging the company's two newspapers into one afternoon paper. Irving Rogers Sr. was also the publisher who moved the company to new headquarters in North Andover.

During Rogers family ownership, the paper dropped "Lawrence" from its nameplate. Later, the family further abandoned the city by removing the bodies of deceased members of the family from graves in Lawrence to graves in Andover.

Former Lawrence Mayor John J. Buckley, in 1990, lauded "The Eagle-Tribune" for helping the city bounce back from the closure of several mills in the 1950s. He said the paper championed economic redevelopment in its editorials and news articles, and persuaded companies such as Avco, Honeywell and Raytheon to open plants in Lawrence. [Handley, Ann. "Lawrence Eagle-Tribune Celebrates 100 Years". "The Boston Globe", September 23, 1990.]

In 2005, the Rogers family, which had owned The Eagle-Tribune for generations, sold the newspaper and its subsidiaries -- including three other Massachusetts dailies and several weeklies -- to Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. of Alabama, for an undisclosed amount of money. Rogers initially stayed on as publisher, but was replaced as publisher within a month of the takeover. ["Eagle-Tribune Chain Sold to Ala. Newspaper Group". "The Patriot Ledger" (Quincy, Mass.), July 28, 2005.]

The paper went through a minor labor dispute in January 2006, after several staff members attempted to start a union. As part of a move to beef up "The Eagle-Tribune"'s presence in New Hampshire, the paper reassigned several staff members to a satellite bureau in Derry, New Hampshire -- days after a union vote. Some of the workers said they were being punished for being on a union organizing committee; they said other members of the committee were switched to less desirable night beats. Spokesmen for CNHI said the moves were unrelated to the union vote, which failed. [Fitzgerald, Jay. "Paper's Labor Pains?" "Boston Herald", February 17, 2006.]

March 2006 brought the daily paper's conversion from an afternoon to a morning newspaper. Since some home delivery subscribers may not get their paper until 8-830am (after they leave for work), those people still believe it is an afternoon paper.

Subsidiaries

As part of the "Lawrence Eagle-Tribune"'s push into the suburbs -- a move which has left some bitterness in the city -- the paper has acquired several weekly newspapers within and bordering its coverage area.

Weeklies published within the paper's circulation area by Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company include the "Andover Townsman", circulating 6,900 copies per week in Andover; the "Haverhill Gazette", 6,400 in Haverhill; and "Town Crossings", 14,700 in Boxford and North Andover.http://plus.salemnews.com/ze/info/pdfs/2007retail.pdf The Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company: Advertising Rates 2007] , accessed July 8, 2007.]

Bordering "The Eagle-Tribune"'s circulation area in southern New Hampshire, the company publishes the "Carriage Towne News" in Exeter and nine other towns; and the twice-weekly "Derry News" in Derry and five other towns.

In 2002, the paper made its largest acquisition, scooping up some of its chief daily competitors for US$70 million. The purchase of the Essex County Newspapers chain from Ottaway Community Newspapers, a division of Dow Jones & Company, brought three neighboring afternoon dailies into the fold: the "Gloucester Daily Times", "The Daily News of Newburyport" and "The Salem Evening News". "Eagle-Tribune" executives touted the creation of a regional news organization; they also laid off some 45 staffers at the Essex County papers, including the editors of the Newburyport and Salem papers. [Gatlin, Greg. "Buyers of N. Shore Papers Ax Top Editors". "Boston Herald", May 30, 2002.]

Since then, the four dailies and the weeklies have made several cost-saving consolidations, cutting down to one printing facility and combining advertising staffs. In 2005, the company employed 700 and reached 341,000 readers in 55 communities, according a spokesman. In September, 2008, the company fired 52 employees in a cost-cutting move.

With its acquisition of the Eagle-Tribune, CNHI also assumed a 49 percent stake in Costa-Eagle Radio Ventures Ltd. and its three radio stations, WCCM, WCEC (formerly WHAV) and WNNW. Continuing its deemphasis of its home town, the company moved WCCM, a long-time Lawrence radio station to a smaller signal in Haverhill and then to its smallest signal in Salem, N.H. The former owners of the Eagle-Tribune created Cambridge Acquisitions, Inc. during the fall of 1994 to hold the minority stake, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Corporations Division. [http://corp.sec.state.ma.us/corp/corpsearch/CorpSearchEntityList.asp?ReadFromDB=True&UpdateAllowed=]

References

External links

* [http://www.eagletribune.com/ "The Eagle-Tribune" Website]
* [http://www.cnhi.com/ Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.]