Wisconsin State Journal

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dmmiller23 (talk | contribs) at 04:52, 26 September 2011 (→‎The Atwood Years). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Wisconsin State Journal
The July 27, 2005 front page of the
Wisconsin State Journal
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Lee Enterprises
PublisherWilliam K. Johnston
EditorJohn Smalley
Founded1839
(as the Madison Express)
Headquarters1901 Fish Hatchery Road
Madison, WI 53713
United States
Circulation89,932 Daily
148,489 Sundays[1]
ISSN0749-405X
Websitemadison.com/wsj

The Wisconsin State Journal is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin.[2] As of March 2006, the Wisconsin State Journal had an average weekday circulation of 89,932 and an average Sunday circulation of 148,489.[1]

History

Founding

Founded by Madison Hotel proprietor William W. Wyman, the Madison Express was first published in Madison on December 2, 1839. The paper began as an afternoon weekly, but during legislative sessions would publish every other day. As a strong supporter of the Whig Party, the paper endorsed William Henry Harrison for president in 1940. After first serving as its compositor and assistant editor, David Atwood purchased the paper with partner Royal Buck in 1848, changing the paper’s name to the Wisconsin Express to expand its outlook. In 1852 the weekly paper merged with Wyman's Wisconsin Statesman to become the Wisconsin Daily Palladium for three months. On Sept. 30, 1852 it changed its name again to the Wisconsin Daily Journal and to its current name in 1860.[3]

The Atwood Years

Following a convention of anti-slavery citizens held in the state capitol in 1854, the paper began espousing the views of the new Republican Party, created three months earlier in Ripon, Wisconsin. After the Civil War the State Journal became a "mouthpiece" for local postmaster and Republican patronage boss Elisha W. Keyes.[4]

During Atwood's 41-year tenure as publisher, he was a commissioned major general (1858), a state assemblyman (1861), an internal revenue assessor (1862-1866), a Madison mayor (1868-1869) and a U.S. representative to Congress (1870), all the while publishing the Wisconsin State Journal until his death in 1889. As mayor, Atwood sought to develop manufacturing in Madison, a position he could then applaud in his own paper.[5]

Horace Rublee was the paper’s associate editor in 1853 and the next year became Atwood’s partner. He later became chairman of the Republican state committee, and editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel. Atwood's other partners included George Gary (1855-1856), Harrison Reed (1859-1861), who later became governor of Florida for six years. J.O. Culver purchased Rublee’s interest in the paper in 1868 on the latter’s appointment by President Ulysses S. Grant as minister to Switzerland. Culver retired in December 1876.

After Atwood's passing, Horace A. “Hod” Taylor took over the paper. Although he was not a journalist, he did have strong poticial ambitions, having run for governor as a stalwart Republican in 1888. He lost the nomination to William D. Hoard. He had managed newspapers in La Crosse and Hudson, Wisconsin and Stillwater, Minnesota. He later held a consularship in Marseilles, France, as well as an appointment as U.S. Railroad Commissioner.

The Progressive Era

During the 1890s the paper's circulation began to catch up to its main rival, the Madison Democrat, due largely to the 1894 arrival of Amos P. Wilder (father of playwright Thornton Wilder). Purchasing a major interest in the paper, Wilder began to transform the State Journal into a more civic-minded newspaper, focusing on local problems but refraining from initiating solutions. Initially a supporter of Governor Robert M. La Follette Sr. in 1902, the paper switched to a stalwart Republican position and fought unsuccessfully against La Follette's re-election in 1904. In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Wilder U.S. consul to Hong Kong.

In Wilder's absence he put his business manager August Roden in charge. Roden adopted the crusading brand of muckraking journalism common to periodicals at the start of the 20th century. His greatest triumph began in 1907 with his crusade against the high rates and poor quality of Madison Gas & Electric's service. Following an almost daily barage of damaging stories about the private utility, the State Journal hired an attorney to lodge a formal complaint with the state commission in charge of regulating gas and electric companies. In 1910 the paper succeeded in getting the state to forve a reduction in MG&E's rates by nearly ten percent, setting a precedent that led to other rate roll-backs.[6] Roden also oversaw the move of the State Journal in 1909 from a three-story limestone building at 119 East Washington Ave. to a new fireproof brick building located on South Carroll St., directly across the street from the paper's hated rival, the Madison Democrat.[7]

In 1911 Richard Lloyd Jones, an associate editor at the muckraking magazine Collier's, became interested in buying the paper from Wilder. U.S. Senator Robert M. La Follette Sr. encouraged this purchase to such a degree that he arranged for wealthy supporters of the Progressive cause to lend Jones $85,000 of the $100,000 necessary to make the deal. Hiring former State Journal reporter William T. Evjue as his managing editor and business manager, Jones ramped up the paper's already liberal views with hard-hitting, provocative editorials that attacked big business and brooked no compromise. During this period the State Journal was recognized as the leading progressive daily in the Wisconsin.[8] The paper made its first two endorsements of a Democrat for U.S. president (Woodrow Wilson, in 1912 and 1916), endorsing only two other Democrats for that office in its history. Under Jones the State Journal also took the dry side of the argument on Prohibition. He also doubled the paper's circulation while beefing up the Sunday edition to include color comics, a pink sports section and a magazine supplement.

With World War I looming, Jones began to sour on the anti-war stance of Sen. La Follette. As the United States entered the war, Jones used the paper to lambast his former friend and hero in scathing editorials that accused him of being disloyal and a pro-German agent. La Follette responded by suing Jones and the State Journal for libel. Jones was later forced to recant these accusations during the subsequent trial. Editor Evjue could no longer tolerate the personal attacks on the senator's character, and in September 1917 Evjue resigned. Three months later he founded the Capital Times, which became the State Journal's main competition for the next nine decades.[9] In 1919, Jones sold the newspaper to Lee Newspaper Syndicate (now Lee Enterprises).[10]

The formation of Madison Newspapers, Inc.

In June 1934 the State Journal and the Capital Times began to work in tandem by offering reduced advertising rates to those who ran ads in both papers. The deal required the formation of two new corporations: the Wisconsin State Journal Co. and the Captal Times Co., both operating under the name Madison Newspapers. State Journal associate editor (and later publisher) Don Anderson regarded the agreement as "a shotgun wedding, conceived through the realization of both parties that we were broke." The deal did away with many competitive practices, which put the company in danger of violating state and federal anti-trust laws. The Department of Justice investigated the arrangement in 1944, but passed on making charges.

By 1947, Lee Enterprises and Evjue's The Capital Times Company, owner of The Capital Times, shared a need for new presses and larger facilities, along with concerns about rising production and labor costs. They discussed a new partnership that would allow them to share a printing plant, fix prices and combine profits. With both papers always published in the afternoon, one paper would have to move to morning distribution in order for them to share the same press. Since afternoons were then deemed a more profitable time to hit the streets and doorsteps, they agreed that whichever paper moved to mornings would become the sole publisher of a Sunday edition to make up for the predicted loss in circulation.[11] The new partnership began on November 15, 1948 as Madison Newspapers, Inc. On February 1, 1949, the Wisconsin State Journal moved from afternoons to mornings and was awarded the Sunday spot.[12]

Views on Senator Joe McCarthy

During the 1950s under editor Roy L. Matson, the State Journal initially took a skeptical view of accusations made by Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy of communist infiltration of the U.S. State Department.[13] However, as the controversy grew, the paper ran editorials strongly supporting his crusade, often printed next to opinions written by syndicated anti-communist Westbrook Pegler.[14] When McCarthy's reputation began to fall apart, the paper would neither condemn nor defend him, choosing to let the senator collapse of his own accord. McCarthy later wrote Matson "I have been both surprised and disturbed by your sudden and apparent all-out opposition to me. I cannot understand this."[15]

The MNI strike

Like many newspaper companies during the 1970s, Madison Newspapers, Inc. sought to upgrade its technology from hot type to computerized typesetting. Without negotiating with the unions, MNI managers ordered the new equipment, forcing seventeen printers to give up their jobs and cutting the wages of the remaining printers by one third. In October 1977 the five local unions at the MNI plant went on strike, resulting in a years-long bitter battle that the unions ultimately lost. Striking employees had founded the Madison Press Connection, which survived for a year and a half as a general-interest daily before folding in January 1980.[16]

Columnists

  • Andy Baggot (sports)
  • Scott Milfred (opinion)
  • Tom Oates (sports)
  • Doug Moe (news and features)

References

  1. ^ a b "Generac Expects To Hire 200 Workers". Wisconsin State Journal. 2006-06-01. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
  2. ^ "The Capital Region's primary sources". Capital Newspapers. Retrieved 2007-03-31.
  3. ^ "Papers Long Ago, Milwaukee Sentinel, June 26, 1887
  4. ^ Fighting Bob La Follette, the Righteous Reformer by Nancy C. Unger, published in 2000 by Univeristy of Carolina Press.
  5. ^ Madison: A History of the Formative Years by David V. Mollenhoff, published 1982 by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co.
  6. ^ Madison: A History of the Formative Years by David V. Mollenhoff, published 1982 by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. Pages 296-302.
  7. ^ A Fighting Editor by William T. Evjue, published 1968
  8. ^ Robert M. Follette by Belle Case La Follette and Fola La Follette, published in 1953 by the MacMillan Company.
  9. ^ Madison: A History of the Formative Years by David V. Mollenhoff, published 1982 by Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co. Pages 296-302.
  10. ^ "Madison, WI". Lee Enterprises. Retrieved 2007-03-28. [dead link]
  11. ^ "The MNI Story," by Bill Lueders, published in Isthmus Dec. 11, 1987
  12. ^ "History". Capital Newspapers. Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  13. ^ Wisconsin State Journal, April 28, 1950
  14. ^ Wisconsin State Journal, June 24, 1950
  15. ^ Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator By Arthur Herman, 2000
  16. ^ Workers and Unions in Wisconsin, edited by Darryl Holter. Published 1999 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Pages 221-222.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wisconsin_State_Journal&oldid=452471869"