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Mariner Group, based in Marshfield, Massachusetts, USA, was a chain of weekly newspapers in the suburban South Shore near Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1972 with one paper, the ''Marshfield Mariner'', the group was sold in 1989 to Capital Cities/ABC and again in 1995 to Fidelity Investments, which dissolved it into Community Newspaper Company a few months later. Today, several of the Mariner papers still publish as part of CNC, now owned by GateHouse Media. Many of the others were folded into former competitors after CNC acquired Mariner's chief competitor, Memorial Press Group. == History == David S. Cutler, a former reporter for ''The Patriot Ledger'' and son of the publisher of the weekly ''Duxbury Clipper'', started the ''Marshfield Mariner'' weekly in 1972 and expanded his holdings to include 17 weekly newspapers—including several startup ''Mariner''s—by 1989.〔Berner, Robert. "Ex-Owner of Mariner Starts Over". ''The Patriot Ledger'' (Quincy, Mass.), page 25, November 4, 1995.〕 He sold the company that year to Capital Cities for an estimated US$7 or US$8 million. Fidelity Investments bid for the papers at that time but was unsuccessful.〔Berner, Robert. "Fidelity Finishing Deal to Buy Mariner Weeklies". ''The Patriot Ledger'' (Quincy, Mass.), page 17, January 13, 1995.〕 In 1993, the company bought the competing ''Hingham Journal'', founded in 1827, and folded it into the ''Hingham Mariner''.〔Preer, Robert. "Readers Losing Local Angle". ''The Boston Globe'', page 33, November 4, 1994.〕 In 1994, Capital Cities announced it would sell all 74 of its newspapers in New England, including the Mariner chain.〔Beam, Alex. "Following the New England Paper Trail". ''The Boston Globe'', August 12, 1994.〕 Fidelity, always considered a strong contender to buy Mariner, bought another large suburban chain of weeklies, News-Transcript Group, in late 1994, fueling speculation that a deal for Mariner was close behind. At the same time, ''The Boston Globe'' was said to be interested in buying the South Shore weeklies.〔Nutile, Tom, and Steven Syre. "On State Street: Harte-Hanks Purchase Makes Johnson's Hobby Even More Lucrative". ''Boston Herald'', November 23, 1994.〕 The deal was not struck until early 1995, however. Fidelity's subsidiary, Community Newspaper Company, purchased Mariner for an undisclosed sum. At the time, CNC chairman William Elfers said Mariner "sort of fills out the map," giving CNC an uninterrupted belt of papers surrounding Boston, from Cape Cod through MetroWest to the Massachusetts North Shore. The Mariner purchase raised CNC's weekly circulation to 1,018,000.〔Nutile, Tom. "Fidelity Unit Buys South Shore Papers". ''Boston Herald'', April 8, 1995.〕 Mariner Group was dissolved in early 1996, when CNC realigned its operating units by geography.〔Cassidy, Tina. "Community Newspaper Realigns Properties". ''The Boston Globe'', January 12, 1996.〕 The ''Mariners'' became the core of the new South Unit. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mariner Group」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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