Five years later, the chain was purchased by, and immediately became the largest single component of, GateHouse Media.

[1] CNC's flagship publication was The MetroWest Daily News, based in Framingham, Massachusetts.

The weeklies were incorporated into CNC and the company also forged close ties with its new sister dailies, The Enterprise and The Patriot Ledger, although they—and later GateHouse Media Massachusetts acquisitions The Herald News and the Taunton Daily Gazette—retained their own editorial hierarchy, however, and were not considered part of Community Newspaper Company.

CNC's holdings, as well as its Massachusetts sister papers and The Bulletin in Connecticut, now constitute GateHouse Media New England.

Each publication was classified in one of five or six semi-autonomous units (Cape, Metro, North, Northwest, South, West), each with its own editor-in-chief, covering distinct geographic areas of eastern Massachusetts and named for its location with respect to Boston.