The Courier-Journal

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The July 27, 2005 front page of The Courier-Journal
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet

Owner	Gannett Company, Inc.
Publisher	Denise Ivey
Editor	Bennie Ivory
Founded	1868
Headquarters	525 W. Broadway Louisville, Kentucky 40201-7431 United States
Circulation	217,814 Daily 271,920 Sunday^[1]

Website: courier-journal.com

The Courier-Journal, nicknamed the "C-J", is the main newspaper for the city of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. According to the 1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook, the paper is the 48th largest daily paper in the United States and the single largest in Kentucky.

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

1 History
2 Awards
- 2.1 Pulitzer Prize
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] 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 more than 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.

[edit] Watterson era

In the mid-1860s, near the end of the Civil War, Henry Watterson became the editor of 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, 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.

[edit] 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. The Binghams, backers of the Democratic Party, were well-liked owners popularly credited with being more concerned with publishing quality journalism (roughly in line with their political views) than making heavy profits. They also owned the WHAS TV and radio station and the Standard Gravure company which printed, among other things, the Courier-Journal.

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.

[edit] 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]

[edit] Awards

[edit] Pulitzer Prize

Year	Category	Recipient	For
1918	Editorial Writing	Henry Watterson	For his two World War I editorials "War Has Its Compensation" (10 April 1918), and "Vae Victis" (17 May 1918).
1926	Reporting	William Burke "Skeets" Miller	For his coverage of the attempts to rescue Floyd Collins trapped in Sand Cave, now part of Mammoth Cave National Park (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 strip mining.
1969	Local General or Spot News Reporting	John Fetterman	For coverage of the funeral for a Vietnam casualty from Kentucky, "PFC Gibson comes home" (28 July 1968).
1976	Feature Photography	The Courier Journal and The Louisville Times	For photo coverage of court-ordered busing in Jefferson County 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 in Campbell County.
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 in Carroll County, Kentucky 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.[2]