The Observer-Dispatch

The Observer-Dispatch is the major newspaper for Oneida County, Herkimer County, and parts of Madison County, and also services the greater Central New York area. Based in Utica, New York, the publication is owned by GateHouse Media.

History

The Observer Dispatch traces its roots to the Utica Observer, a weekly founded by Eliasaph Dorchester in 1817. The Observer became a daily newspaper in 1848 and, after several mergers with other newspapers, became the Observer-Dispatch in 1922. That was also the year the paper was purchased by Frank E. Gannett, who founded the Gannett Company. Gannett owned the newspaper until 2007, when it was purchased by GateHouse Media, one of the largest publishers of locally based print and online media in the United States.

For a time, two daily papers were published – the Daily Press in the morning and the Observer-Dispatch in the afternoon, and those newspapers were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1959 for an investigation into local corruption. The two newspapers merged into a single, seven-day morning publication, the Observer-Dispatch, in 1987.

The company added digital delivery of news and information in January 2000 with the launch of uticaOD.com. It began online video publication in 2006.

In 2004, the Observer-Dispatch purchased the Mid York Weekly newspaper, serving Hamilton, N.Y., and seven weekly Pennysaver publications, which are mailed throughout Oneida and Herkimer counties. In Herkimer County, the Observer-Dispatch competes with its sister newspapers, The Evening Telegram in Herkimer, N.Y., and The Evening Times in Little Falls, N.Y.

External links

• Observer-Dispatch | uticaOD.com