The April 6, 2007 front page of
The Patriot Ledger --> |
|
Type | Daily newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Broadsheet |
Owner(s) | GateHouse Media |
Publisher | Sean Burke |
Editor | Lisa Strattan |
Founded | January 7, 1837 | , as Quincy Patriot
Headquarters | 400 Crown Colony Drive Quincy, Massachusetts 02269-9159, United States |
Circulation | 38,537 weekdays 45,479 weekend in 2012 |
OCLC number | 22448062 |
Website | patriotledger.com |
The Patriot Ledger is a daily morning newspaper printed in Quincy, Massachusetts, that serves the South Shore. It publishes Monday through Saturday.
Known for its thorough news coverage of the 26 communities south of Boston, The Patriot Ledger has won numerous international, national and regional newspaper and public service awards over the years. It was named the New England Press Association's Newspaper of the Year for 2005 and 2006.
The paper was founded on Jan. 7, 1837, as the weekly Quincy Patriot by John Adams Green and Edmund Butler Osborne.
The Quincy Patriot was the hometown paper of President John Quincy Adams, a frequent writer of letters to the editor after he left the White House and became a congressman.
The longest-running family ownership began in 1852 when George Washington Prescott went to work for the paper as a carrier. He later bought the newspaper.
Prescott was a descendant of Col. William Prescott, who won fame at the Revolutionary War battle of Bunker Hill with his order: "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."
In 1890, Prescott started The Quincy Daily Ledger, continuing The Patriot as a weekly. In 1916, the weekly and daily were merged into The Quincy Patriot Ledger. The paper later expanded to serve communities throughout the South Shore.
In the 1950s, the paper became a pioneer in newspaper production. Early experimentation led to development of the first practical photo-typesetting machine. Newspaper executives from throughout the world visited the paper to learn about the new process.
The Patriot Ledger was also among the first papers in the nation to establish zoned editions for local news and advertising, exchanging journalists with foreign countries, transmitting news copy and page layouts by facsimile, using a front-end computer editing system, installing a two-way radio system for spot news coverage, pioneering the use of 35-millimeter photography and setting up a "little merchants" carrier system.
In 1979, G.W. Prescott Publishing Co. bought the Memorial Press Group and the Old Colony Memorial of Plymouth, Mass.
The Patriot Ledger moved from its longtime editorial and business office location in downtown Quincy to the Crown Colony Office Park in South Quincy in 1988.