RISN Operations
RISN Operations Inc., also called Rhode Island Suburban Newspapers, is a privately owned publisher of three daily newspapers and several weekly newspapers in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The company was founded by Illinois-based newspaper executives in early 2007 to purchase the Rhode Island holdings of Journal Register Company, which it did for $8.3 million. In 2013, RISN acquired the "Yuma Sun" and the "Porterville Recorder" from Freedom Communications. In 2018, RISN acquired its former competitors South County Newspapers and its publications "The Independent" and "South County Life" from GateHouse Media, who had bought the  papers from Edward A. Sherman Publishing in 2017. In 2019, RISN acquired "The Westerly Sun" and Sun Publishing Company from the Record-Journal Publishing Company of Meriden, Connecticut. Also in 2019, RISN acquired "The Union Democrat" in California. In 2022, RISN acquired "the Chronicle" of Willimantic, Connecticut, from Central Connecticut Communications. Officers. The corporation's first two named officers, Melanie Radler (president) and Roland McBride (vice president and treasurer), were both Illinois residents connected with Conrad Black's former Hollinger International newspaper chain. Radler is the daughter of F. David Radler, a former Hollinger boss; McBride is chief financial officer  of Horizon Publications Inc., the company Radler founded after he left Hollinger. McBride also served as CFO of American Publishing Co., a former Hollinger subsidiary, and was said in an indictment to have aided Black's and the elder Radler's misappropriation of $5.5 million in connection with the sale of some newspaper properties from Hollinger to Horizon. The company is based in Warwick, Rhode Island. Its incorporation papers list a Delaware address. RISN shares owners with Horizon Publications. Dailies. RISN operates seven daily newspapers: The company also briefly published the "Warwick Daily Times", based in the West Warwick  newsroom. The Warwick paper had been founded by JRC in 2006 but was folded by RISN in 2007. Weeklies. RISN's five weekly newspapers, known collectively as Southern Rhode Island Newspapers, are based in the village of Wakefield, part of South Kingstown, Rhode Island. A "Providence Journal" report said the group's combined weekly circulation of around 13,000 in 2007 was down from 16,140 in 2001. Southern Rhode Island Newspapers' offices are at 187 Main Street, Wakefield, Rhode Island 02879. Sun Publishing Company also publishes weekly newspapers. Plagiarism controversies. In April 2013, an assistant editor at "The Narragansett Times" plagiarized  the lede (the first paragraph of a news story) from an article in a competitor newspaper, the "South County Independent""." The "South County Independent" asked for a front-page apology, and "The Narragansett Times" subsequently printed a clarification stating the words were "inadvertently transcribed" and "apologize[d] for any confusion this may have caused our readers."