The Citizen (Laconia)

The Citizen

Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	Sample News Group
Publisher	Harry Hartman
Headquarters	171 Fair Street, Laconia, New Hampshire 03246  United States
Official website	citizen.com

The Citizen is a six day a week, morning daily newspaper in Laconia, New Hampshire, USA, the largest local paper serving the Lakes Region of that state. It has been owned since 1991 by Geo. J. Foster Company, publisher of Foster's Daily Democrat in Dover, New Hampshire.

In the late 1990s, the Foster Company launched Foster's Sunday Citizen as a joint venture by Foster's Daily Democrat and The Citizen, neither of which previously had a Sunday edition.^[1]

The Citizen was formerly an afternoon paper called the Laconia Evening Citizen. It was owned by Lawrence J. Smith and Alma Gallagher Smith until the Foster Company took over, May 10, 1991.^[2]

In November 2006, The Citizen converted to morning publication; its sister paper in Dover followed a year later.^[3] The company made the change in order to compete with nearby papers such as the New Hampshire Union Leader and the Concord Monitor.^{[citation needed]}

The Saturday newspapers feature a "local" section. In that section is the History section, a look back at Laconia from 125, 100, 75, 50, 25, and 10 years ago with articles from local newspapers of that time, as well as an old photograph of an area in Laconia (including Weirs Beach and Lakeport) with a description below it, then a current picture of the same area with an updated description. This interesting and unique section is written by Warren Huse.

Sale of the paper

On June 23, 2010, Patrice D. Foster, president and publisher of George J. Foster Co. Inc, announced the sale of Citizen Publishing, publishers of The Citizen in Laconia, to Eagle Publishing with offices in Claremont.

The sale is formally in place as of Saturday, June 26.

The Foster family purchased The Citizen in 1991 from the Smith/Gallagher family, which founded the Laconia newspaper in 1925. During the Foster's tenure they added a Sunday product and citizen.com for expanded coverage. The paper was also recognized with the prestigious Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment Award for championing the pursuit of the truth during their ownership and several times was named New England Newspaper of the Year by the New England Newspaper Association.

The new owners publish a number of newspapers in Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont, including the daily Eagle-Times in Claremont.

"We are thrilled that Patty and the Foster family have chosen us to continue the tradition of superb local journalism they have provided to the Laconia market and are looking forward to participating in the continued growth of the Lakes Region," commented Chris P. Miles, a partner in Eagle Printing and Publishing.

Geo. J. Foster Co. Inc., will continue to print The Citizen and Laconia edition of The Sunday Citizen for the next three months.

In an announcement Tuesday, Foster said the sale is a bittersweet moment for her family.

"We've considered it a privilege providing local news to Lakes Region residents and would like to think we have had a positive influence on the communities we have served."

Footnotes

1. ^ Kittredge, Clare. "A News War Takes Shape in Portsmouth". The Boston Globe, November 2, 1997
2. ^ "Alma Gallagher Smith, Laconia Newspaper Publisher." Obituary. The Boston Globe, October 16, 1991.
3. ^ "Foster's N.H. Daily Switching to A.M." NEPA Bulletin (Boston, Mass.), page 2, October 2007.