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FOR SALE
Pat Purcell eyes North Shore dailies

BY DAN KENNEDY

Less than a year after purchasing more than 100 community newspapers for a reported $150 million, Boston Herald owner Pat Purcell is looking to expand.

On Tuesday, the Salem Evening News reported that its corporate owner, Dow Jones, may be looking to sell it and two sister papers, the Gloucester Daily Times and the Newburyport Daily News. Purcell was quoted as saying that he was definitely interested, commenting that the three papers " would give us a nice daily presence on the North Shore. " When I ran into him at Governor Jane Swift’s annual Christmas party for the media on Tuesday evening, Purcell confirmed his interest.

Purcell’s Community Newspaper Company already publishes about a dozen weeklies on the North Shore. The situation would be analogous to that in the western suburbs, where CNC publishes both the MetroWest Daily News and a string of weeklies.

The potential acquisition would appear to be a stretch for Purcell, who, according to CNC sources, has been running his new chain on a shoestring in the wake of a sharp, industrywide advertising slump. But no doubt he is worried about the possibility that the North Shore dailies, collectively known as Essex County Newspapers, could fall into the hands of the New York Times Company, which also owns his archrival the Boston Globe.

Disclosure: my wife is a staff photographer with the Salem paper, which means I think all of the potential buyers — Purcell, the Times Company, Dean Singleton, and anyone else you might want to name — are just terrific custodians of journalistic excellence and outstanding humanitarians as well.

 

Issue Date: December 20 - 27, 2001

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