Sentinel & Enterprise

{{Short description|Newspaper in Fitchburg, Massachusetts}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = Sentinel & Enterprise | image = | caption = | type = Daily newspaper | format = Broadsheet | founded = {{start date|1838|12|20}}, as ''Fitchburg Sentinel'' | ceased_publication = | owners = MediaNews Group | publisher = Mark O'Neil | custom_label = Advertising | custom_data = Tim Brady | editor = Charles St. Amand | circulation = 15,031 Daily<br/>17,119 Sunday | circulation_date = 2012 | circulation_ref = <ref name=circ>{{cite web |url=http://abcas3.accessabc.com/ecirc/newsform.asp|title=FAS-FAX Report: Circulation Averages for the Six Months Ended March 31, 2012 |publisher=Audit Bureau of Circulations |access-date=May 21, 2012}}</ref> | headquarters = 808 Main Street,<br/>Fitchburg, Massachusetts 01420, United States | ISSN = 1049-1155 | website = {{URL|sentinelandenterprise.com}} }}

The '''''Sentinel & Enterprise''''' is a morning daily newspaper published in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, with a satellite news bureau in Leominster, Massachusetts. The newspaper covers local news in Fitchburg, Leominster and several nearby towns in northern Worcester County and northwest Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It is owned by MediaNews Group of Colorado., which is owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.medianewsgroup.com/consumers/Pages/OurBrands.aspx |title=Our Newspapers |author=MediaNews Group |author-link=MediaNews Group |location=Denver, Colorado |access-date=July 1, 2012 |archive-date=May 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525203133/http://www.medianewsgroup.com/consumers/pages/ourbrands.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name= MNG>{{Cite web |title=MediaNews Group -- Communities |url=https://www.medianewsgroup.com/communities/ |access-date=2023-12-10 |website=www.medianewsgroup.com}}</ref><ref name=Alden>{{cite news |last1=Folkenflik |first1=David |title='Vulture' Fund Alden Global, Known For Slashing Newsrooms, Buys Tribune Papers |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/05/21/998730863/vulture-fund-alden-global-known-for-slashing-newsrooms-buys-tribune-papers |access-date=2023-12-01 |website=National Public Radio |date=2021-05-21 |language=en-US |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210521172142/https://www.npr.org/2021/05/21/998730863/vulture-fund-alden-global-known-for-slashing-newsrooms-buys-tribune-papers |archive-date=2021-05-21 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The main competitors to the ''Sentinel & Enterprise'' are the county's largest daily, the ''Telegram & Gazette'' of Worcester; on the west, ''The Gardner News''; and on the east, Nashoba Publishing weeklies and ''The Sun'' of Lowell, also owned by MediaNews.

== History == thumb|right|The exterior of the Sentinel & Enterprise building in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Formed in 1973 by the merger of two newspapers covering adjacent cities, the daily traces its lineage back to the ''Fitchburg Sentinel'' (founded 1838) and ''Leominster Enterprise'' (1873).<ref name="sale">Elfland, Mike. "Sentinel & Enterprise Sale Set." ''Telegram & Gazette'' (Worcester, Mass.), January 8, 1997.</ref>

In the 1980s, the paper was known as the ''Fitchburg-Leominster Sentinel & Enterprise'', and published only six days a week, Monday through Saturday, in the afternoon. In the later years of this arrangement, the Saturday paper was published in the morning and called the "weekend edition." In 1990, the ''Sentinel & Enterprise'' debuted a Sunday morning edition. The weekday papers remained afternoon publications.<ref>Snell, George. "Sentinel Plans Sunday Edition." ''Telegram & Gazette'' (Worcester, Mass.), March 2, 1990.</ref>

By 1997, the ''Sentinel & Enterprise'' had switched to seven-day morning publication.<ref name="sale"/> Its longtime owner, Thomson Corporation, as part of a nationwide divestment of small-market newspapers, sold the Fitchburg paper to MediaNews. No price was released in the transaction between two private companies. Average circulation was given at the time of sale as 19,640, daily, and 20,087 on Sunday.<ref name="sale"/>

Following MediaNews' purchase of ''The Sun'' and Nashoba Publications weeklies covering several towns between Lowell and Leominster, the company consolidated printing in 2002 for all of these properties at a new $7 million press plant in Devens, Massachusetts. The move was said to have a beneficial effect on traffic in downtown Fitchburg and Lowell.<ref>Vaznis, James. "Media Company Merging Print Sites; $7M Plan Includes Move to Devens." ''The Boston Globe'', August 1, 2002.</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com ''Sentinel & Enterprise'' Website]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sentinel and Enterprise}} Category:Fitchburg, Massachusetts Category:Leominster, Massachusetts Category:Mass media in Worcester County, Massachusetts Category:MediaNews Group publications Sentinel and Enterprise (Fitchburg) Category:Newspapers established in 1838 Category:1838 establishments in Massachusetts