Big Changes In Store For Publisher Of New Canaan Advertiser

NEW CANAAN, CT — While the New Canaan Advertiser and the Darien Times are safe and will continue producing editions, Martin V. Hersam, Publisher and CEO of HAN Network, announced Thursday that the media company will cease operations for several of its other Fairfield County news weeklies.

"Due to economic forces buffeting our industry we are rescaling our business again. The recent volatility of the newsprint market made our options clear,” said Hersam in a statement. "The best efforts of our incredible staff and years of strategic planning, retooling and restructuring we could not overcome the economic realities of tepid advertising and subscriber interest in this market. We just could not sustain a publishing business here any longer."

HAN publications set to close are the Weston Forum, Redding Pilot, Easton Courier, Monroe Courier and the Stratford Star.

In addition to the Advertiser and Darien Times, the other HAN publications that will continue are the Wilton Bulletin, Ridgefield Press, Milford Mirror, Trumbull Times and Shelton Herald.

What this mean for the staff of the shuttered publications - whether any or all will be absorbed into the remaining newspapers - was not disclosed.

"These are beautiful towns with remarkable residents and we enjoyed being their print and digital local news source," added Hersam in a statement about Weston, Redding, Easton, Monroe and Stratford. "Newspapering is a business we truly love and it saddens us to leave after such a long run. Unfortunately we could not operate at a financial loss here any longer."

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