Type Daily newspaper Owner(s) Athol Press Inc. Editor Deborrah L. Porter | Format broadsheet Publisher Richard J. Chase Jr. Founded 1934 | |
The Athol Daily News is a small, six-day daily (Monday through Saturday) newspaper in north central Massachusetts. Based in the town of Athol, the newspaper also covers the rural towns of Erving, New Salem, Orange, Petersham, Phillipston, Royalston, Warwick, and Wendell, Massachusetts.
History
There have been four owners in the history of the Athol Daily News, the last three representing generations of the same family.
The Athol Daily News was founded in 1934 when Lincoln O'Brien merged two weeklies, the Athol Chronicle and Athol Transcript. O'Brien sold the paper to Edward T. Fairchild in 1940. On January 1, 1982, Richard J. Chase bought the newspaper from Fairchild, his father-in-law. The Boston Globe reported at the time that the Daily News' circulation was 5,500.
Richard J. Chase Jr., Fairchild's grandson, took over Athol Press Inc. September 29, 1989. Circulation of the family-owned newspaper at that time was given as 5,700.