About Us

101 Malbone Road

Newport, RI. 02840

401-849-3300

The Newport Daily News is the major publication of the Edward A. Sherman Publishing Company and has been locally owned and managed since it was established in 1846. It has become the most significant news medium in the area, providing information to our readers and support to our advertisers. The Daily News was named New England Newspaper of the year in 1991, 2001 and 2004 for over-all excellence and received major awards for public service in 1969 and 1994.

The company also publishes Mercury, a free, alternative weekly, which could be considered the oldest new newspaper in the country. The history of the publication dates back to 1758, when the widow and son of James Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's brother, established The Newport Mercury. It not only has a claim to being the oldest newspaper in the country, but Ann Franklin is recognized as the first woman in the Colonies to publish and edit a newspaper.

The Mercury was published regularly up to the time the British landed in Newport, when the press and types were buried. (The press, also used by Solomon Southwick to print copies of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, can be seen in the Museum of Newport History in downtown Newport.) After the Revolutionary War, the Mercury was issued again. It continued as a subscription weekly published by The Newport Daily News until March 2005.

Although this latest incarnation of the weekly newspaper is quite different from the one started by the Franklins nearly 250 years ago, it is proud of its past, dedicated to documenting the present and looking straight into the future.

In addition to our newsprint products, we publish Newport Life Magazine, Newport Wedding Magazine, City Guide, Mercury, and the Newport Best Read Guide. The company's other ventures include production of the South County Independent, and North East Independent, weekly newspapers across the Bay, the Newport Navalog, the Navy's oldest newspaper, and Ocean State Independent, our total market coverage product. The company also offers Geeks to Go, a computer sales and service division.