Ghiglione's quarter-century foray in Central Massachusetts journalism—known in its final years as Worcester County Newspapers—began when he purchased the "Southbridge Evening News" from its founding McNitt family in 1969. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he acquired weekly newspapers, specialty publications and shoppers in adjacent communities, some 20 in all. By 1988, the chain had a circulation of 241,000, said to be the largest overall readership of any publishing company in the region. Ghiglione also oversaw a healthy commercial printing operation at the newspaper presses.