| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Tribune Publications Inc. |
| Publisher | Daniel J. Horgan |
| Editor | Stephen Freker |
| Founded | 1880 |
| Ceased publication | 2017 |
| Headquarters | 277 Commercial Street,Malden, Massachusetts 02148 United States |
| Circulation | 14,000 in 2003 when combined withMalden Evening News[1] |
| Price | US$ .50 daily |
| Website | MaldenNews.com |
TheMedford Daily Mercury was an independent five-day (Monday through Friday)daily newspaper covering the city ofMedford, Massachusetts.
Publisher Daniel J. Horgan owned theDaily Mercury and its sister paper, theMalden Evening News, since purchasing theDaily News-Mercury in 1996. Although Horgan restored separate titles for Medford andMalden, Massachusetts, on any given day the two newspapers looked almost identical, except for front-page stories.
The public face of theMedford Daily Mercury through much of the late 20th century was David Brickman, who became its publisher in 1947, bought theMalden News in 1953 and acquired theMelrose News, a former newspaper in neighboringMelrose, in 1969. Brickman was active in press associations and civic and governmental affairs—he helped campaign for Massachusetts'Open Meeting Law and served on the state Ethics Commission.[2]
Brickman, who was known to Boston-area viewers of the "Starring the Editors" television program as an outspoken regular panelist, called his final years at the helm of the three newspapers "a struggle in an antipathetic atmosphere." He sold his 75 percent interest in the papers for $1 million to Malden businessman and minority shareholder Warren H. Jackson in 1989.[3]
The move kept the paper in local hands, although Brickman had seemed ready to sell to aRupert Murdoch-owned company, for more money, a year earlier. Reports in 1988 had Murdoch, who at the time owned theBoston Herald andWFXT-TV in nearbyBoston, negotiating a price betweenUS$ 5 million andUS$ 10 million.[4]
At the time of the sale to Jackson, the three papers covered four towns—theMalden News published an edition inEverett, Massachusetts—with a reported combined circulation of 11,300. Jackson announced he would save money by combining the three papers into one edition.[3] This move created theDaily News-Mercury in 1990.[5]
Another of Jackson's cost-cutting measures was the subject of a union picket in 1994. Despite a contract that guaranteed "lifelong employment", he fired the papers' typographers. One union member complained that theDaily News-Mercury had been "in bankruptcy for the last year; they owe us more thanUS$ 100,000 in pension money; they haven't given us a raise in eight years".[6]
The underfunded pension later caused the sheriff's office to close theDaily News-Mercury temporarily in June 1995.[7]
In 1996, theDaily News-Mercury was bought forUS$ 650,000 by its current owner, Daniel J. Horgan, a publisher ofweekly newspapers in the Boston area.[5] Horgan's estate shut down both theMercury and theMalden Evening News in January 2017, stating that the papers' advertisers were in poor financial shape themselves, leading to adomino effect that caused the papers' failure.[8]