Missoulian

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Missoulian
Media of the United States
  • List of newspapers

    • The Missoulian is a daily newspaper printed in Missoula, Montana, United States. The newspaper has been owned by Lee Enterprises since 1959. The Missoulian is the largest published newspaper in Western Montana, and is distributed throughout the city of Missoula, and most of Western Montana.

    History

    Early years

    The Missoulian was established as the Missoula and Cedar Creek Pioneer on September 15, 1870,

    A.B. Hammond
    converted it to a daily newspaper with Harrison Spaulding from the Missoula County Times as editor and publisher.

    Republican era

    Daily Missoulian press room, 1923

    Hammond's purchase of The Missoulian brought the newspaper into the republican fold and on the battle lines of the

    Montana Territory's At-large congressional district and support Republican Thomas H. Carter instead. Despite Clark crying foul, Carter went on to win.[6][7]

    Daly's election maneuvering created a major rift between the Copper Kings, and the next year he became chairman of the Montana Democratic Party. He asked for Hammond's support and Hammond responded by delivering a Republican sweep of the Missoula delegation. This infuriated Daly, who declared war on Hammond and threatened to "make grass grow in the streets of Missoula". Several years later, as Montana's press was divided on whether to keep the state's capital in Clark's choice of Helena or move it Daly's company town of Anaconda, Hammond who was worried that further empowered Daly would weaken Missoula loaned The Missoulian to Clark's team, who derided Anaconda. "What has Anaconda ever done for Missoula, anyway? If Christ came to Anaconda he would be compelled to eat, sleep, drink and pray with Marcus Daly." Though the majority of Missoula County voted for Anaconda as capital, enough voted for Helena for it to win the statewide contest.[6][7]

    In 1900, Hammond began selling stock in the Missoulian to political rival

    governor. In December 1906, Wilhelm's Magazine, The Coast, described the newspaper as "one of the best papers in the state of Montana and has the credit of being a strong paper in all matters pertaining to public and state affairs. It is large, well edited and a credit to Missoula."[8] Dixon gained control over the paper in 1907, and brought in Arthur Stone, a former Anaconda Standard reporter and managing editor, as well as former Democratic state legislator, as editor. His experience helped further modernize the paper and expand its reach.[9][6] The Republican Daily Missoulian (as it was called until 1961) was soon rivaled by the Democrat-leaning Missoula Herald, published by the Hassler Brothers and its successor, the Missoula Sentinel, that was purchased in 1912 (one year after its founding) by Richard Kilroy for the purpose of politically wounding Dixon, as he ran for re-election in the first year Senators were popularly elected. (*note. Though the 17th Amendment to the Constitution was not ratified until 1913, the Montana legislature provided for the direct election of US Senators in 1911, in anticipation of the amendment's ratification.)[10]
    Dixon lost the election in a Democratic sweep and lost the paper for financial reasons, five years later.

    Anaconda Copper

    Montana's press in 1912 was almost entirely under the influence and control of the

    Milwaukee Road cancel complimentary papers that it had given to passengers, however, forced Dixon to sell. Two newspapermen from the Chicago Journal, Martin Hutchens and Lester L. Jones, purchased the Missoulian and were soon part of the "copper press" (i.e. a "Company paper" known for using its pages to promote the Company's views and for suppressing news it didn't want reported) and remained as such, until Anaconda Copper sold all its Montana newspapers to Lee Enterprises, in 1959.[6]

    Lee Enterprises

    By the late 1950s, the Anaconda Company's newspaper model of toeing the company line and avoiding controversy had left the company's papers self-conscious and defensive to the point that Don Anderson commented in its appraisal of the newspapers that "They even refused to take a stand on the weather." When the papers were finally sold in 1959, only the Billings Gazette and Missoulian were profitable and in growing markets. Ultimately, the financial difficulties of the company's papers around the state may have helped Lee Enterprises, who faced competition from much larger organizations, such as the Cowles Media Company and the Ridder Corporation, purchase the newspaper block. Larger publishers were only interested in the two profitable papers, while the Anaconda Company insisted on selling the papers as a block, with an implicit guarantee that individual papers not be sold off to recoup losses. Also in Lee Enterprises' favor was that Don Anderson, publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal and later, president of Lee Newspapers in Montana, who in 2007 had the new University of Montana School of Journalism building named after him, was a Montana native who understood the political climate and had worked with Anaconda Company staff as a young reporter. He and Lee Enterprises' CEO, Phillip Adler, successfully purchased the papers despite not being the highest bidders with an agreement made in late May. The newspapers each announced the change in ownership with a "hello" on June 2, 1959, stressing that they would be accountable to the public and not their parent company.[6]

    While most of Lee Enterprises' new newspapers retained their leadership, the Missoulian was an exception, where Lloyd Schermer, son-in-law of Phillip Adler, took over as publisher.[6]

    Starting July 11, 2023, the print edition of the newspaper will be reduced to three days a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Also, the newspaper will transition from being delivered by a traditional newspaper delivery carrier to mail delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.[12][13]

    Name and organization

    The Missoulian began as the weekly Missoula and Cedar Creek Pioneer in 1870, before being renamed The Missoula Pioneer in 1871, but under the Montana Publishing Company. It was rechristened The Pioneer, later in 1871, by the Pioneer Publishing Company and then, The Montana Pioneer near the end of 1872, by Washington J. McCormick Sr., before being purchased by Frank Woody and T. M. Chisholm a couple months later and renamed The Weekly Missoulian. This remained its incarnation, through 1898.[14]

    The Weekly Missoulian continued for a year, from January 1899 to April 1900, as the still weekly The Missoulian, published by Bryan Bros. & Hauck.[15] The weekly newspaper was then purchased by the Fruit-Grower Publishing Company and existed as a horticulture and general news publication, until the mid-1910s. In 1889, Harrison Spaulding founded The Morning Missoulian, as a daily (minus Monday) paper to complement The Weekly Missoulian. By 1893, this was changed to The Evening Missoulian, and then, to the Daily Missoulian, under the Missoula Publishing Company with Harrison Spaulding as editor. After brief separate ownership, both the daily and weekly Missoulians were reclaimed by the Missoula Publishing Company, with The Daily Missoulian lasting until 1961, when it was once again called the Missoulian, after being purchased by Lee Enterprises.[16]

    Timeline

    Weekly[17]

    • Missoula and Cedar Creek pioneer - (September 1870)
    • The Missoula Pioneer - (January 1871)
    • The Pioneer - (November 1871)
    • The Montana Pioneer - (December 1872)
    • The Weekly Missoulian - (February 1873)
    • The Missoulian - (January 1899)
    • Edwards' fruit grower & farmer - (December 1901)
    • Semi-weekly Missoulian - (September 1902)
    • Weekly Missoulian - (January 1904 - 1915)

    Daily

    • The Morning Missoulian - (1889)
    • The Evening Missoulian - (February 1893)
    • Daily Missoulian - (August 1894)
    • The Missoulian - (May 1900)
    • The Daily Missoulian - (November 1904)
    • The Missoulian - (June 1910)
    • The Daily Missoulian - (March 1915)
    • Missoulian - (September 1961)

    References

    1. ^ Lee Enterprises. "Form 10-K". investors.lee.net. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
    2. ^ a b "About Missoula and Cedar Creek pioneer. [volume] (Missoula City, Mont.) 1870-1871". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
    3. ^ "About The Pioneer. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1871-1872". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
    4. ^ a b "About The Montana pioneer. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1872-1873". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
    5. ^ Leeson, Michael A. (1885). History of Montana. 1739-1885. Chicago: Warner, Beers & Company.
    6. ^ a b c d e f Swibold, Dennis L. Copper chorus: mining, politics, and the Montana press, 1889-1959 (2006)
    7. ^ a b Malone, Michael P.; Lang, William L. (2006). The Battle for Butte: Mining and Politics on the Northern Frontier, 1864-1906. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
    8. ^ Wilhelm, Honor L. "Missoula, Montana" The Coast. Seattle. The Coast Publishing Company. 08- 1909. Vol. 12, No. 6. (Dec. 1906).
    9. ^ Toole, Myers, & Fritz. Montana and the West: essays in honor of K. Ross Toole. (1984)
    10. ^ Toole, Kenneth Ross. Montana: An Uncommon Land. University of Oklahoma Press (1984)
    11. ISBN 978-1331171164
      . Retrieved 26 October 2020.
    12. ^ "Missoulian print edition shifts to 3-day format". The Missoulian. 2023-06-11. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
    13. ^ Bragg, Dennis (2023-06-12). "End of an Era, Missoulian Cutting Back on Printing Days". Newstalk KGVO. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
    14. ^ "About The Weekly Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1873-1898". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
    15. ^ "About The Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1899-1900". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
    16. ^ "About The Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1961-current". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
    17. ^ "US Newspaper Directory Search Results: Missoula, Montana". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 October 2020.

    Further reading

    • Western Montana Progress Edition, 1864-1889-1964: Montana Territorial Centennial; Statehood Diamond Jubilee.
      OCLC 823868017
      .

    External links
    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Missoulian&oldid=1217632027"