The newspaper in Westfield, Massachusetts, has been sold. The new owner said it plans to keep the paper a daily publication.
The Westfield News was recently purchased by Reminder Publishing, which produces several weekly papers in the Pioneer Valley.
Mike Dobbs, the managing editor for Reminder, said the new ownership wants to take time to evaluate how to improve the paper.
"We did not lay off people. We're not cutting salaries, or anything like that," Dobbs said. "We are looking, naturally, to see how can we better use the personnel, and support the personnel, in their mission to cover Westfield and Southwick and adjoining towns."
The deal also includes a weekly paper for Westfield, The Pennysaver, and others covering Longmeadow and Enfield, Connecticut.
Dobbs said Reminder's expertise can benefit those publications.
"We have learned now, especially in the last year," Dobbs said, "that if we bring out, for instance, weekly newspapers that are delivered to everyone in a given town to give advertisers total market coverage, then we get a better response from the advertisers. Readers like it as well, because they don't have to seek out their community newspaper. It's coming to their home."
Reminder Publishing itself was sold last year and became a subsidiary of The Springfield Republican.
