Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

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William Randolph Hearst founded the Los Angeles Examiner in 1903, in order to assist his campaign for the presidential nomination on the Democratic ticket and to complement his San Francisco Examiner. The Los Angeles Herald Examiner building, located at the southwest corner of Broadway and 11th Streets, was largely designed by San Francisco architect Julia Morgan then associated with Los Angeles architects J. Martyn Haenke and William J. Dodd whose contribution to the design is not yet determined by scholars.
William Randolph Hearst founded the Los Angeles Examiner in 1903, in order to assist his campaign for the presidential nomination on the Democratic ticket and to complement his San Francisco Examiner. The Los Angeles Herald Examiner building, located at the southwest corner of Broadway and 11th Streets, was largely designed by San Francisco architect Julia Morgan then associated with Los Angeles architects J. Martyn Haenke and William J. Dodd whose contribution to the design is not yet determined by scholars.

The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner was a major Los Angeles daily newspaper, published Monday through Friday in the afternoon, and in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays. It was part of the Hearst syndicate. The afternoon Herald-Express and the morning Examiner, both of which had been publishing in the city since the turn of the Twentieth century, merged in 1962. For a few years after this merger, the Herald-Examiner claimed the largest afternoon-newspaper circulation in the country.

On December 15, 1967, Herald Examiner employees began a strike that lasted almost a decade and resulted in at least $15 million in losses. At the time of the labor strife, the paper's circulation was about 721,000 daily and it had 2,000 employees. The strike ended in March, 1977, with circulation having dropped to about 330,000 and the number of employees to 700. Many veteran reporters left and never returned. As circulation went into free-fall, advertisers were reluctant to use it, and the unions campaigned effectively to its working-class readership, urging them to cancel subscriptions.

Despite Hearst's belated efforts to restore some of the paper's luster, the Herald-Examiner went out of business November 2, 1989, leaving the Los Angeles Times as the sole city-wide daily newspaper, though the San Fernando Valley-based Los Angeles Daily News has tried to take its place.

The Herald-Examiner is available on microfilm at the downtown branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.

For details on the closing of the Herald-Examiner, see http://herex0.tripod.com/

[edit] References

  • Will Fowler; Reporters: Memoirs of a Young Newspaperman; Roundtable Publishing; ISBN 0-915677-61-X (hardback, 1991)
  • James Richardson; For the Life of Me: Memoirs of a City Editor ; G.P. Putnam's Sons; (hardback, 1954)
  • Rob Leicester Wagner; Red Ink White Lies: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles Newspapers 1920-1962; ISBN 0-944933-80-7; Dragonflyer Press; (paperback, 2000)
  • CTWhite; Website: William J. Dodd 1861-1930~American Architect and Designer~ Sources on History of LA Herald Examiner: LA Times and LA Public Library
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