South County Independent was a weekly newspaper serving the areas of Narragansett, South Kingstown, Charlestown, Kingston, Wakefield and Peace Dale in Rhode Island. The paper was founded in 1997 by Frederick J. Wilson III & a group of investors. In October 2015, South County Independent merged with the North East Independent to become one paper, called The Independent, which covers North Kingstown, Narragansett, and South Kingstown . The Independent' s weekly circulation is 8,482.
9-676: Frederick J. Wilson founded South County Newspapers and the South County Independent after he left the Narragansett Times in 1995. Wilson's split from the Times was not amicable. Wilson said of the Times ' owner, the Journal Register Company, "They don't care about the product. They don't care about the customer. They don't care about the employees. And they don't know anything about the business." Wilson wanted to "produce
18-487: A weekly newspaper that would not be beholden to corporate interests;" upon leaving, he immediately founded a South County Newspapers to compete with the Times and Journal Register Company, and recruited several of the staff to work with him. South County Newspapers began publishing the South County Life magazine in 1998. South County Life published 7 editions per year. In 1999, South County Newspapers began publishing
27-495: Is an independent publisher of a weekly newspaper , The Independent , and a magazine, South County Life , in Washington County, Rhode Island . The company was founded by veteran newspaper publisher Frederick J. Wilson III in 1997, seeking to "produce a weekly newspaper that would not be beholden to corporate interests." Wilson is no longer involved with the company, which was later sold to Edward A. Sherman Publishing Company,
36-645: Is published on Thursdays. For several years under its Sherman and Gatehouse ownerships, its main offices were located within the Newport Daily News building in Newport, Rhode Island , and the company maintained a smaller satellite office in Wakefield, Rhode Island. Under RISN ownership, the newspaper's offices were moved permanently to Wakefield. In 2015, the South County Independent and North East Independent merged. The new publication, The Independent, covers
45-688: The North East Independent , which covered the areas of East Greenwich and North Kingstown. Wilson stepped down from the South County Independent in 2001. Managing editor of the paper, Betty Cotter, who had followed Wilson from the Narragansett Times , said that Wilson's leaving was amicable and that he would remain president of the board of directors. Wilson was named to the Rhode Island Press Association's Hall of Fame in 2010. After Wilson's departure, South County Newspapers became part of Edward A. Sherman Publishing Co. In 2015,
54-559: The South County Independent won the Community Newspaper of the Year award from the Rhode Island Press Association. The paper received 5 additional awards that year. Shortly thereafter, the South County Independent and the North East Independent merged to become one paper, The Independent , under managing editor Liz Boardman. Their combined circulation was 11,400. In 2017, GateHouse Media Inc. acquired Edward A. Sherman Publishing Co. At
63-471: The publishers of The Newport Daily News . Independent Newspapers shares advertising resources with The Newport Daily News . In 2017, Edward A. Sherman Publishing and all of its publications, including The Independent , was sold to Gatehouse Media in October 2017. In 2018, Gatehouse sold The Independent and its sister magazine South County Life to Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers . The Independent
72-540: The time, The Independent reported a circulation of 9,000. In 2018, The Independent and the South County Life magazine were sold to Southern Rhode Island Newspapers, which is part of Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers Operations Inc., and which publishes papers that compete with The Independent. Under Rhode Island Newspaper Operations, The Independent is now headquartered and published in Wakefield, Rhode Island . South County Newspapers Independent Newspapers
81-593: The towns of South Kingstown, North Kingstown, and Narragansett; its first edition published Oct. 1, 2015. Prior to merging, the two newspapers shared a website, IndependentRI.com , which remains unchanged. South County Living was rebranded as South County Life magazine in 2013. The free magazine is published seven times a year and distributed throughout Southern Rhode Island (March, May, June, July, August, September and November). Its content focuses on communities in Washington County, R.I. This article about
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