In 1995, the assets of the long-independent
Salem Evening News was bought for
US$16.5 million by
Ottaway Community Newspapers, a division of
Dow Jones & Company and owner of two of the
Evening News's chief daily competitors, the evening
Beverly Times (9,000 circulation) and
Peabody Times (3,000 circulation). The
Evening News had a circulation around 36,000 at the time of the sale. Ottaway's Essex County Newspapers division, which also published the
Gloucester Daily Times and
The Daily News of Newburyport, moved its headquarters to the
Evening News's Beverly offices. It merged the Salem and Peabody papers into the Beverly Times, and renamed the Beverly paper the Salem News in order to gain a non-union work force. Before this, the Salem News headquarters had been on the corner Washington and Front Street in Salem. Ottaway, which still owns the
Cape Cod Times and
The Standard-Times in southeastern
Massachusetts, seven years later sold its Essex County holdings, including the Salem paper, to their top competitor.
The Eagle-Tribune of
North Andover bought the North Shore chain in 2002, paying
US$70 million for the Gloucester, Newburyport and Salem papers.
Eagle-Tribune executives touted the creation of a regional news organization; they also laid off some 45 staffers at the Essex County papers, including the editors of the Newburyport and Salem papers. The
Eagle-Tribune chain was itself bought for an undisclosed amount of money by Community Newspaper Holdings (now
CNHI), an
Alabama company, in 2005. ==Prices==