courier journal

The Courier-Journal also owns the alternative weekly paper Velocity, which is provided free of charge.

History

Pre-History

The Courier-Journal was created from the merger of several newspapers introduced in Kentucky in the 1800s.

Pioneer paper The Focus of Politics, Commerce and Literature, was founded in 1826 in Louisville when the city was an early settlement of less than 7,000 individuals. In 1830 a new newspaper, The Louisville Daily Journal, began distribution in the city and, in 1832, absorbed The Focus of Politics, Commerce and Literature. The Journal was an organ of the Whig Party and edited by George D. Prentice, a New Englander who initially came to Kentucky to write a biography of Henry Clay. Prentice would edit the Journal for over 40 years.

In 1844, another newspaper, the Louisville Morning Courier was founded in Louisville by Walter N. Haldeman. The Louisville Daily Journal and the Louisville Morning Courier were the news leaders in Louisville and were politically opposed throughout the Civil War; The Journal was against slavery while the Courier was pro-Confederacy. The Courier was suppressed by the Union and had to move to Nashville, but returned to Louisville after the war.

Watterson era

In the mid-1860s, near the end of the Civil War, Henry Watterson became the editor of The Journal. During secret negotions in 1868, The Journal and the Courier merged and the first edition of The Courier-Journal was delivered to Louisvillians on Sunday morning, 8 November 1868.

Watterson, the son of a Tennessee congressman, had written for Harper's Magazine and the New York Times before enlisting in the Confederate Army. He became nationally known for his work as the Courier-Journal emerged as the region's leading paper. He supported the Democratic Party and pushed for the industrialization of Kentucky and the South in general, notably through suggesting the Southern Exposition be held in Louisville. He attracted controversy for attempting to prove that Christopher Marlow had actually written the works of Shakespeare. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1917 for editorials demanding the United States enter World War I.

The Courier-Journal founded a companion afternoon edition of the paper, The Louisville Times, in May 1884. Haldeman had owned the papers until his death in 1902, and by 1917 they were owned by his brother, William, and Henry Watterson.

Bingham ownership

In 1918, Judge Robert Worth Bingham purchased two-thirds interest in the newspapers and acquired the remaining stock in 1920. In 1933, the newspapers passed to his son, Barry Bingham, Sr., and in 1971, Barry Bingham, Jr. succeeded his father as the newspapers' editor and publisher.

Barry Bingham, Jr. served as editor and publisher until he resigned in 1986, shortly after his father announced that the newspaper company was for sale.

Gannett ownership

In July 1986, Gannett Company, Inc. purchased the newspaper company and appointed George N. Gill President and Publisher. Gill had been with the newspaper and the Binghams for over two decades, working his way up from reporter to Chief Executive Officer of the Bingham Companies. In 1993, Gill retired and Edward E. Manassah became President and Publisher.

In early 1987, publication of The Louisville Times, an afternoon publication that had experienced declining readership, ceased.

As of 2005, the C-J has received ten Pulitzer Prizes and is read by an estimated 492,000 people daily and 670,900 people on Sundays.[1]

Awards

Pulitzer Prize

See also

• Samuel C. Brightman, Courier-Journal reporter and Washington correspondent

External links

• Courier-Journal website
• Gannett subsidiary profile of The Courier-Journal