Area News Group publishes three newspapers in southern New Hampshire: Hudson-Litchfield News, Pelham-Windham News, and Salem Community Patriot. It was founded in 2000 when it purchased the Hudson-Litchfield News, and has since added the other papers. The local weekly papers are supported by advertisers and are distributed to town residents free of charge. The company is headquartered in Hudson, New Hampshire on Executive Drive. Len Lathrop is the Publisher and Editor in Chief. The company won the "Small Business of the Year" award from the localchamber of commerce in 2012. The papers place a large emphasis on publishing local news on issues in town and state government, education, local organization's activities, high school sports, and other topics. The Hudson-Litchfield News has done investigative reporting that has been picked up by other local news outlets, has published cartoons satirizing local public officials, and is a venue for legal notices. The Hudson Litchfield News and Pelham Windham News have a very popular, long-running column called Thumbs UpThumbs Down where readers could share opinions. In 2008 ANG went to court to resist a subpoena from suspended Litchfield police chief Joseph O'Brion, who sought the identity of an unnamed source. The competing Nashua Telegraph supported ANG in resisting the subpoena. Columns printed in that year also impacted the relationships among Hudson public officials. Until 2010, the Hudson-Litchfield News was printed on the presses of the Nashua Telegraph. In 1991, three town council members in Hudson purchased the Hudson-Litchfield News, igniting concerns about conflict of interest in local and national news outlets and prompting a lawsuit. In 1999 Fidele J. Bernasconi, one of the owners named as a defendant in the lawsuit, published an op-ed in the neighboring New HamshireUnion Leader as part of a campaign around special education funding. Bernasconi retired as publisher around the time of the acquisition.
