New Hampshire Union Leader

New Hampshire Union Leader

November 27, 2011 front page
of the New Hampshire Union Leader
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner Union Leader Corp.
Publisher Joseph W. McQuaid
Founded 1863
Political alignment Conservative
Headquarters 100 William Loeb Drive
Manchester, NH 03108-9555
United States
Circulation 45,536 daily
64,068 Sunday (2011)[1]
Official website UnionLeader.com

The New Hampshire Union Leader is the daily newspaper of Manchester, the largest city in the state of New Hampshire. It was founded in 1863 and was called simply The Union Leader from the mid-1970s until April 4, 2005. For many years prior to that, it was known as the Manchester Union-Leader.

The paper was best known for the conservative political opinions of its late publisher, William Loeb, and his wife, Elizabeth Scripps "Nackey" Loeb. Famously, the paper helped defeat Maine Senator Edmund Muskie in his 1972 bid for the presidency by criticizing Muskie's wife, Jane, in editorials, leading him to defend her in a tearful press conference that had a clear and measured negative effect on voter perceptions of him in the state. (See also: Canuck letter.)

Over the decades, the Loebs gained considerable influence, and helped shape New Hampshire's political landscape. In 2000, after Nackey's death on January 8, Joseph McQuaid, the son and nephew of the founders of the New Hampshire Sunday News, Bernard J. and Elias McQuaid, took over publishership.

Contents

History

Like many newspapers, the Union Leader has a complex history involving mergers and buyouts.

The weekly Union became the Manchester Daily Union. (with a period) on March 31, 1863. The afternoon Union became a morning Daily Union (dropping the "Manchester"). Although the Union began as a Democratic paper, by the early 1910s it had been purchased by Londonderry, NH politician Rosecrans Pillsbury, a Republican.

In October 1912, the competing Manchester Leader was founded by Frank Knox and financed by then-Governor Robert P. Bass, a member of the Progressive (or Bull Moose) Party who was attempting to promote the Progressive cause in New Hampshire. The newspaper was so successful that Knox bought out the Union, and the two newspapers merged under one company, the Union-Leader Corporation, in July 1913. Owing to Pillsbury's stake in the new company, Knox moved his paper politically to the right, and the Manchester Union-Leader became a moderate, generally pro-business, Republican newspaper.

Following Knox's death in 1944, William Loeb purchased the newspaper and moved it further to the right. He often placed editorials on the front page and supported highly conservative candidates for public office. He changed Manchester Union Leader to The Union Leader in the mid-1970s to emphasize the fact that it is the only statewide newspaper in New Hampshire.

The New Hampshire Sunday News was created in 1948 and later, after Loeb's failed attempts to start a Sunday edition of the Union-Leader failed, was purchased by the Union-Leader Corporation. It continues to be published under the banner of the New Hampshire Sunday News.

Two notable early employees of the New Hampshire Sunday News were Ralph M. Blagden, the first Managing Editor,[2] and an even more prominent journalist he mentored, Benjamin C. Bradlee. Bradlee was then a reporter[3] but went on to be the Executive Editor of The Washington Post for nearly 30 years and is now its vice president.

Institutional pedigree

(Use the scrollbar at the bottom to view more recent mergers and events which are to the right.)

Institutional Pedigree of the New Hampshire Union Leader
  The Amoskeag Representative founded October 18, 1839, by John Caldwell[4] → January 22, 1841, name change[5] → Manchester Representative →                                                      
                                                                   
              December 2, 1842, merge[6] → Manchester Democrat  → August 4, 1848, name change[7]  → The Democrat  → 1857 merge  → The Democrat and American                                
                          New Hampshire Democratic Party adopts a resolution declaring that The Democrat no longer represents its views and that a new paper should be established; editor William H. Gilmore leaves The Democrat to found the Union Democrat, January 1, 1851.[8]                                          
      The Manchester Democrat founded April 26, 1842, by William H. Kimball and Joseph Kidder[9] →                                                    
                                                                 
                          Union Democrat founded January 31, 1851, by William H. Gilmore & Company.[10] → Known under various names and with a variety of associated papers: Manchester Union Democrat, Weekly Union, Daily Union (though there may have been at least one independent paper of this name), Manchester Daily Union, Monthly Literary Union, Manchester Union.     →                        
                                 
In 1913 ownership was unified under the Union-Leader Publishing Company but the papers remained separate.
         William Loeb purchase and 1948 merge[11] → Manchester Union Leader accompanied by the Manchester Sunday News for several decades.           → Union Leader
                                    Manchester Leader founded October 1912 by Colonel Frank Knox and John A. Muehling.[12] →        
In 1948 Loeb acquired the New Hampshire Sunday News but continued to publish it separately.[11]
              
                                                                 
                                              New Hampshire Sunday News founded 1947 by Bernard J. McQuaid and Elias McQuaid.[11] →                 → New Hampshire Sunday News

Contributors

Editorial style

Throughout their existence, the New Hampshire Sunday News and the Union Leader and the various preceding incarnations of the Union Leader have been closely involved in state politics and during the quadrennial United States Presidential election, national politics. The publishers' political orientations have been conservative and Republican. The owner-publishers have invariably made their opinions known in print, which has frequently prompted harsh criticism and accusations that the paper is used for not-entirely-journalistic purposes.

“ The Manchester Union Leader, practitioner of a style of knife-and-kill journalism that went out of fashion half a century ago in the rest of the country, is the primary daily paper of 40 percent of New Hampshire's population... ”

—Theodore Harold White, The Making of the President, 1972[13]

2009 cutbacks

In a message printed in the paper in early 2009 publisher Joseph McQuaid announced that owing to financial difficulties the Saturday edition of the paper would no longer be distributed outside of the Greater Manchester area and that Saturday content would be moved to a combined Friday/Saturday edition.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ "eCirc for Newspapers". Audit Bureau of Circulations. September 30, 2011. http://abcas3.accessabc.com/ecirc/newstitlesearchus.asp. 
  2. ^ "Thomas H. MacDonald on Toll Roads". Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/mcdonaldtoll.cfm. Retrieved 2008-06-14.  (Archived by the Internet Archive here, archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5Ya01qMAB)
  3. ^ Mencher, Melvin (February 20, 2001). "Pioneer Journalists: Courage to Stand for Justice in Society". Community College Journalism Association. http://www.ccjaonline.org/news/2001/02/20/Summer2000/Pioneer.Journalists.Courage.To.Stand.For.Justice.In.Society-54399.shtml. Retrieved 2008-06-14.  (Archived by the Internet Archive here, archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5YZzX04rV)
  4. ^ Moore, John Weeks (1886), Moore's Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Gatherings, in the Form of Disconnected Notes Relative to Printers, Printing, Publishing, and Editing of Books, Newspapers, Magazines, and Other Literary Productions, Such As the Early Publications of New England, the United States: With Many Brief Notices of Authors, Publishers, Editors, Printers, and Inventors., Concord, New Hampshire: Printed by the Republican Press Association, p. 286, OCLC 221382891, http://books.google.com/books?id=QP4kffwU-oEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA289,M1 .
  5. ^ Moore, John Weeks (1886), Moore's Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Gatherings, in the Form of Disconnected Notes Relative to Printers, Printing, Publishing, and Editing of Books, Newspapers, Magazines, and Other Literary Productions, Such As the Early Publications of New England, the United States: With Many Brief Notices of Authors, Publishers, Editors, Printers, and Inventors., Concord, New Hampshire: Printed by the Republican Press Association, p. 291, OCLC 221382891, http://books.google.com/books?id=QP4kffwU-oEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA291,M1 .
  6. ^ Moore, John Weeks (1886), Moore's Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Gatherings, in the Form of Disconnected Notes Relative to Printers, Printing, Publishing, and Editing of Books, Newspapers, Magazines, and Other Literary Productions, Such As the Early Publications of New England, the United States: With Many Brief Notices of Authors, Publishers, Editors, Printers, and Inventors., Concord, New Hampshire: Printed by the Republican Press Association, p. 292, OCLC 221382891, http://books.google.com/books?id=QP4kffwU-oEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA292,M1 .
  7. ^ Moore, John Weeks (1886), Moore's Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Gatherings, in the Form of Disconnected Notes Relative to Printers, Printing, Publishing, and Editing of Books, Newspapers, Magazines, and Other Literary Productions, Such As the Early Publications of New England, the United States: With Many Brief Notices of Authors, Publishers, Editors, Printers, and Inventors., Concord, New Hampshire: Printed by the Republican Press Association, p. 364, OCLC 221382891, http://books.google.com/books?id=QP4kffwU-oEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA364,M1 .
  8. ^ Moore, John Weeks (1886), Moore's Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Gatherings, in the Form of Disconnected Notes Relative to Printers, Printing, Publishing, and Editing of Books, Newspapers, Magazines, and Other Literary Productions, Such As the Early Publications of New England, the United States: With Many Brief Notices of Authors, Publishers, Editors, Printers, and Inventors., Concord, New Hampshire: Printed by the Republican Press Association, p. 322, OCLC 221382891, http://books.google.com/books?id=QP4kffwU-oEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA322,M1 .
  9. ^ Moore, John Weeks (1886), Moore's Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Gatherings, in the Form of Disconnected Notes Relative to Printers, Printing, Publishing, and Editing of Books, Newspapers, Magazines, and Other Literary Productions, Such As the Early Publications of New England, the United States: With Many Brief Notices of Authors, Publishers, Editors, Printers, and Inventors., Concord, New Hampshire: Printed by the Republican Press Association, p. 363, OCLC 221382891, http://books.google.com/books?id=QP4kffwU-oEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA363,M1 .
  10. ^ Moore, John Weeks (1886), Moore's Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Gatherings, in the Form of Disconnected Notes Relative to Printers, Printing, Publishing, and Editing of Books, Newspapers, Magazines, and Other Literary Productions, Such As the Early Publications of New England, the United States: With Many Brief Notices of Authors, Publishers, Editors, Printers, and Inventors., Concord, New Hampshire: Printed by the Republican Press Association, p. 345, OCLC 221382891, http://books.google.com/books?id=QP4kffwU-oEC&printsec=frontcover#PPA435,M1 .
  11. ^ a b c Kevin Cash, "Who the Hell IS William Loeb?", Amoskeag Publishing, 1975.
  12. ^ American Council of Learned Societies (1959), Dictionary of American Biography, XXXIII, Supplement Three, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p. 425, OCLC 4171403 .
  13. ^ White, Theodore Harold (1973). The Making of the President, 1972. New York: Atheneum Publishers. p. 85. ISBN 9780689105531. OCLC 679721. 
  14. ^ McQuaid, Joseph (2009-03-30). "The newspaper news here isn't all bad, but we are making a few changes soon". New Hampshire Union Leader. http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?articleId=8ff6b993-0908-4a06-89d0-79089a716395. 
  • Cash Kevin. Who the Hell Is William Loeb? Manchester, NH: Amoskeag Press, 1975.
  • Roper, Scott. "Manchester Union-Leader." In Burt Feintuch, and David Watters, editors, Encyclopedia of New England. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.
  • Wright, James. The Progressive Yankees: Republican Reformers in New Hampshire, 1906-1916. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1987.

External links