Although Horgan restored separate titles for Medford and Malden, Massachusetts, on any given day the two newspapers looked almost identical, except for front-page stories.

Brickman was active in press associations and civic and governmental affairs—he helped campaign for Massachusetts' Open Meeting Law and served on the state Ethics Commission.

[2] Brickman, who was known to Boston-area viewers of the "Starring the Editors" television program as an outspoken regular panelist, called his final years at the helm of the three newspapers "a struggle in an antipathetic atmosphere."

[3] The move kept the paper in local hands, although Brickman had seemed ready to sell to a Rupert Murdoch-owned company, for more money, a year earlier.

[4] At the time of the sale to Jackson, the three papers covered four towns—the Malden News published an edition in Everett, Massachusetts—with a reported combined circulation of 11,300.