The Courier-Journal
Encyclopedia
The Courier-Journal, locally called "The C-J", is the main newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 for the city of Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

, USA. According to the 1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook, the paper is the 48th largest daily paper in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and the single largest in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

.

Origins

The Courier-Journal was created from the merger of several newspapers introduced in Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

 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
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...

, founded and edited by George D. Prentice
George D. Prentice
George Dennison Prentice was the editor of the Louisville Journal, which he built into a major newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky. He attracted readers by satire as well as exaggerated reporting and support of the Know-Nothing Party in the 1850s. His writing was said to contribute to rabid...

, a New Englander who initially came to Kentucky to write a biography of Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...

. Prentice would edit the Journal for more than 40 years.

In 1844, another newspaper, the Louisville Morning Courier was founded in Louisville by Walter Newman Haldeman
Walter Newman Haldeman
Walter N Haldeman Walter N Haldeman Walter N Haldeman (April 27, 1821 in Maysville, KY – May 13, 1902 in Louisville, Kentucky was an American newspaper publisher, owner, and businessman from Louisville, KY in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Mr. Haldeman founded the Louisville Courier-Journal...

. The Louisville Daily Journal and the Louisville Morning Courier were the news leaders in Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

 and were politically opposed throughout the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

; The Journal was against slavery
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...

 while the Courier was pro-Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

. The Courier was suppressed by the Union and had to move to Nashville, but returned to Louisville after the war.

In 1868, an ailing Prentice persuaded the 28-year-old Henry Watterson
Henry Watterson
Henry Watterson was a United States journalist who founded the Louisville Courier-Journal.He also served part of one term in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat....

 to come edit to the Journal. During secret negotiations 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 era

Henry Watterson, the son of a Tennessee congressman, had written for Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine
Harper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...

 and the New York Times before enlisting in the Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

 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 urging the Southern Exposition
Southern Exposition
The Southern Exposition was a five-year series of World's Fairs held in the city of Louisville, Kentucky from 1883 to 1887 in what is now Louisville's Old Louisville neighborhood. The exposition, held for 100 days each year on immediately south of Central Park, which is now the St....

 be held in Louisville. He attracted controversy for attempting to prove that Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...

 had actually written the works of Shakespeare. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1917 for editorials demanding the United States enter World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

The Courier-Journal founded a companion afternoon edition of the paper, The Louisville Times
The Louisville Times
The Louisville Times was a newspaper that was published in Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1884 as the afternoon counterpart to The Courier-Journal, the dominant morning newspaper in Louisville and the commonwealth of Kentucky for many years. The two newspapers published a combined edition ...

, in May 1884. In 1896, Watterson and Haldeman opposed Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...

 over his support of "Free Silver
Free Silver
Free Silver was an important United States political policy issue in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Its advocates were in favor of an inflationary monetary policy using the "free coinage of silver" as opposed to the less inflationary Gold Standard; its supporters were called...

" coinage. This unpopular decision upset readers and advertisers, many of whom pulled their support for The Courier-Journal. Kentucky voted for the Republican candidate in 1896, the first time in state history, and local political leaders blamed the Courier. Only the popularity of The Louisville Times, which had no strong editorial reputation, saved the newspaper company from bankruptcy. The Courier supported Bryan in future elections.

Haldeman had owned the papers until his death in 1902, and by 1917 they were owned by his son, William, and Henry Watterson.

Bingham ownership

On August 8, 1918, Robert Worth Bingham
Robert Worth Bingham
Robert Worth Bingham was a politician, judge, newspaper publisher and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He attended the University of North Carolina and University of Virginia but did not graduate. He moved to Louisville in the 1890s and received a law degree from the University of...

 purchased two-thirds interest in the newspapers and acquired the remaining stock in 1920. The liberal Bingham clashed with long-time editor Watterson, who remained on board, but was in the twilight of his career. Watterson's editorials opposing the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...

 appeared alongside Bingham's favoring it, and Watterson finally retired on April 2, 1919.
As publisher, Bingham set the tone for his editorial pages, and pushed for improved public education, support of African Americans and the poor of Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...

. In 1933, the newspapers passed to his son, Barry Bingham, Sr.
Barry Bingham, Sr.
George Barry Bingham, Sr., CBE, was the patriarch of a family that dominated local media in Louisville for several decades in the 20th century....

 Barry Bingham would continue in his father's footsteps, guiding the editorial page and modernizing the paper by setting up several news bureaus throughout the state, expanding the news staff. During Barry Bingham, Sr.'s tenure, the paper was considered Kentucky's "Newspaper of Record" and consistently ranked among the 10 best in the nation.

In 1971, Barry Bingham, Jr.
Barry Bingham, Jr.
George Barry Bingham, Jr. was an American newspaper publisher and television and radio executive...

 succeeded his father as the newspapers' editor and publisher.

The Binghams were well-liked owners popularly credited with being more concerned with publishing quality journalism than making heavy profits. They also owned the leading local radio and television stations -- WHAS-TV
WHAS-TV
WHAS-TV channel 11 is the ABC affiliated television station in Louisville, Kentucky. Owned by Belo Corporation, the station's transmitter is located in Floyd County, Indiana, near the community of Floyds Knobs...

, WHAS-AM, and WAMZ-FM
WAMZ
WAMZ is a country music-formatted radio station located in Louisville, Kentucky. The station broadcasts on 97.5 FM with an ERP of 100 kW.-Station history:Experimental W9XEK began on July 22, 1944 at 45.5 MHz...

 -- and Standard Gravure
Standard Gravure
Standard Gravure was a Louisville, Kentucky rotogravure printing company founded in 1922 by Robert Worth Bingham and owned by the powerful Bingham family. For decades, it printed the weekly The Courier-Journal Magazine as well as rotogravure sections for other newspapers as well as Parade...

, a rotogravure
Rotogravure
Rotogravure is a type of intaglio printing process; that is, it involves engraving the image onto an image carrier...

 printing company that printed the Courier-Journal's Sunday Magazine as well as similar magazines for other newspapers.

Barry Bingham Jr. sought to free the papers from conflicts of interests, and through The Louisville Times, experimented with new ideas such as signed editorials. Bingham Jr. also parted with tradition by endorsing several Republican candidates for office.

In 1974, Carol Sutton
Carol Sutton
Carol Sutton was an American journalist. In 1974 she became the first female managing editor of a major U.S. daily newspaper, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. She was cited as the example of female achievement in journalism when Time named American Women as the 1975 People of the Year...

 became managing editor of The Courier-Journal, the first woman appointed to such a post at a major US daily newspaper. Under the leadership of C. Thomas Hardin, director of photography, the combined photography staff of The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times was awarded the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography
Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography
The Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography has been awarded since 1968 for a distinguished example of feature photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album....

 for its coverage of school desegregation in Louisville.

Barry Bingham, Jr.
Barry Bingham, Jr.
George Barry Bingham, Jr. was an American newspaper publisher and television and radio executive...

 served as editor and publisher until he resigned in 1986, shortly after his father announced that the newspaper company was for sale, in large measure because of disagreements between Bingham Jr. and his sister Sallie.

Gannett ownership

In July 1986, Gannett Company, Inc. purchased the newspaper company for $300 million 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 February 1987, publication of The Louisville Times
The Louisville Times
The Louisville Times was a newspaper that was published in Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1884 as the afternoon counterpart to The Courier-Journal, the dominant morning newspaper in Louisville and the commonwealth of Kentucky for many years. The two newspapers published a combined edition ...

, which like most afternoon papers had experienced declining readership, ceased after the news operations of the two papers had been consolidated under Gannett.

In 1989, The Courier-Journals news staff won the Pulitzer Prize for general local reporting for what the Pulitzer board called "exemplary initial coverage" of a collision that was the nation's worst drunk-criving crash and school-bus accident. In 2005, cartoonist Nick Anderson won the paper's 10th Pulitzer, but when he left for the Houston Chronicle, the paper did not replace him, instead relying largely on submissions from local cartoonists. One, lawyer Marc Murphy, has become a near-regular and gained respect for his work.

As of 2005, the newspaper was read by an estimated 492,000 people daily and 670,900 people on Sundays.

On December 3, 2008, it was announced that The C-J would lay off 51 employees, including 17 who voluntarily took buyout offers, as part of a larger cutback by Gannett due to financial losses. On July 8, 2009 The Courier-Journal announced it would lay off 44 employees reducing the workforce to 575 employees.

The newspaper resumed polling on elections, and began videostreaming its editorial-board conferences with major candidates, under Publisher Arnold "Arnie" Garson, who came from the Argus Leader, Gannett's paper in Sioux Falls, S.D., in late 2008. Garson is an outspoken promoter of the future of printed newspapers in the digital age. Under him, the paper began keeping occasional major stories or sports columns off its website and promoting them as print exclusives. Most of these have run on Sundays; in July 2009, Garson announced that the paper's Sunday home-delivery circulation was up 0.5 percent over the previous year.

Pulitzer Prize

Year Category Recipient For
1918 Editorial Writing Henry Watterson
Henry Watterson
Henry Watterson was a United States journalist who founded the Louisville Courier-Journal.He also served part of one term in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat....

 
For his two World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 editorials "War Has Its Compensation" (10 April 1918), and "Vae Victis" (17 May 1918).
1926 Reporting William Burke "Skeets" Miller
William Burke Miller
William Burke "Skeets" Miller was a newspaper and radio reporter who first came to prominence with his on site reporting of the attempted rescue of caver Floyd Collins for Louisville's Courier-Journal, for which he received a Pulitzer Prize on May 4, 1926...

 

For his coverage of the attempts to rescue Floyd Collins
Floyd Collins
William Floyd Collins was a celebrated pioneer cave explorer in central Kentucky, an area that is the location of hundreds of miles of interconnected caves, including the Mammoth Cave National Park...

 trapped in Sand Cave,
now part of Mammoth Cave National Park
Mammoth Cave National Park
Mammoth Cave National Park is a U.S. National Park in central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world. The official name of the system is the Mammoth-Flint Ridge Cave System for the ridge under which the cave has formed. The park was established...

 (February, 1925).
1956 Editorial Cartooning Robert York  For his cartoon "Achilles" showing a bulging figure of American prosperity tapering to a weak heel labeled "farm prices". Appeared in The Louisville Times, (16 September 1955).
1967 Public Service The Courier Journal For its "meritorious public service" during 1966 in its fight against the ravages of Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

 strip mining.
1969 Local General or Spot News Reporting John Fetterman
John Fetterman (reporter)
John Fetterman was a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal. He was awarded the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for local, general, or spot-news reporting for his story “PFC Gibson Comes Home.” About the death of a soldier in Vietnam, it focused on the young man's family in Knott...

 
For coverage of the funeral for a Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 casualty from Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, "PFC Gibson comes home" (28 July 1968).
1976 Feature Photography The Courier Journal and The Louisville Times
For photo coverage of court-ordered busing
Desegregation busing
Desegregation busing in the United States is the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools in such a manner as to redress prior racial segregation of schools, or to overcome the effects of residential segregation on local school demographics.In 1954, the U.S...

 in Jefferson County
Jefferson County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 693,604 people, 287,012 households, and 183,113 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 305,835 housing units at an average density of...

 in 1975.
1978 Local General or Spot News Reporting Rich Whitt  For his coverage and three months of investigation of the disastrous 28 May 1977 fire at the Beverly Hills Supper Club, Southgate, Kentucky
Southgate, Kentucky
Southgate is a city in Campbell County, Kentucky, United States, a part of metropolitan Cincinnati, Ohio. The population was 3,472 at the 2000 census.-History:...

 in Campbell County
Campbell County, Kentucky
Campbell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed on December 17, 1794, from sections of Scott, Harrison and Mason counties. As of 2010, the population was 90,336. Its county seats are Alexandria and Newport...

.
1980 International Reporting Joel Brinkley and Jay Mather  For international reporting in a series of articles, "Living the Cambodian Nightmare," their vivid account of refugees in Southeast Asia (December, 1979).
1989 General Reporting The Courier Journal For its exemplary initial coverage of a bus crash
Carrollton bus disaster
The Carrollton, Kentucky bus collision was one of the deadliest bus disasters in United States history.About 11:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday May 14, 1988, Larry Mahoney, a drunk driver in a pickup truck traveling in the wrong direction on an interstate highway in a rural, unincorporated area of Carroll...

 in Carroll County, Kentucky
Carroll County, Kentucky
Carroll County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky and located at the confluence of the Kentucky and Ohio rivers. It was formed in 1838 and named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence. The population was 10,155 at the 2000 census...

 that claimed 27 lives and its subsequent thorough and effective examination of the causes and implications of the tragedy (1988).
2005 Editorial Cartoon Nick Anderson For his portfolio of twenty editorial cartoons.

See also

  • Samuel C. Brightman
    Samuel C. Brightman
    Samuel C. Brightman was a journalist, war correspondent, freelance writer and adult educator.Brightman started his career with the Louisville Courier-Journal covering education and politics and eventually becoming their Washington correspondent...

    , Courier-Journal reporter and Washington correspondent
  • Kate Harrington (Poet)
    Kate Harrington (poet)
    Kate Harrington, born Rebecca Harrington Smith and later known as Rebecca Smith Pollard, was an American teacher, writer and poet. She was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania on September 20, 1831. She spent her most productive years in Iowa. She died in Ft. Madison on May 29, 1917. Her...

    , a former Courier-Journal reporter


External links

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