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The MetroWest Daily News

Massachusetts newspaper

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ7751193
Source-derived summary

The MetroWest Daily News is an American daily newspaper published in Framingham, Massachusetts, serving the MetroWest region of suburban Boston. The newspaper is owned by USA Today Co.

The newspaper covers several cities and towns in Norfolk, Middlesex and Worcester counties. Until 1998 it was named for Middlesex County (most recently as the Middlesex News) or for the then-town of Framingham (through most of the mid-20th century, as the Framingham News).

History

Originally a locally owned evening newspaper, the News was purchased by the Harte-Hanks newspaper chain as its first foray into Massachusetts journalism, in 1972.

By 1986, the paper sold 49,000 copies daily and 55,000 on Sunday, and also published four Framingham-area weekly newspapers: the Town Crier papers in Sudbury, Wayland and Weston, and the Townsman in Wellesley. That year, Harte-Hanks added the Daily Transcript of Dedham and the News-Tribune of Waltham, and 17 weeklies, to its holdings, and merged its Massachusetts properties into a single organization that became known as News-Transcript Group.

Around that time, amid a review of the four local newspaper companies competing in the Framingham area, The Boston Globe gave the paper credit for wide-ranging coverage of foreign, national, local, sports, arts and lifestyle news, but Tab Communications publisher Russell Pergament said his daily competition left a niche for his community papers:

There's an undercurrent of resentment toward the Middlesex News. People are not getting enough local news. Well, we're going to give them local news like they've never had it before -- we're going to out-News the News.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The MetroWest Daily News” as massachusetts newspaper. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around MetroWest, Daily and News.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1998, 1972, 1986—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1897-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with MetroWest, Daily and News providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The MetroWest Daily News”, the useful work is to connect “massachusetts newspaper” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7751193. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1998, 1972 and 1986.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The MetroWest Daily News”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The MetroWest Daily News primary sources, The MetroWest Daily News archive and MetroWest research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from The MetroWest Daily News” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.