The State (newspaper)

The State

The paper's July 27, 2005 front page
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner The McClatchy Company
Publisher Henry Haitz III
Editor-in-chief Mark Lett
Staff writers 472
Founded 1891
Language English
Headquarters 1401 Shop Road
Columbia, SC, United States
Circulation 106,053 Daily
139,022 Sunday[1]
Official website TheState.com

The State is a daily morning newspaper published in Columbia, South Carolina, in the United States. Owned by The McClatchy Company and distributed in most of South Carolina's 46 counties, The State is the largest newspaper in the Palmetto State.

Its news staff was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in general news reporting for its Hurricane Hugo coverage in 1989. Its former cartoonist, Robert Ariail, was a Pulitzer finalist in 1995 and 2000. Reporter Gina Smith broke the Mark Sanford scandal story on June 24, 2009 when she interviewed Sanford at Atlanta Hartsfield Airport as he returned from Argentina[2]

According to the newspaper's Web site, it has 440 full-time employees and another 31 who work part time, not including an on-premises "McClatchy Customer Care Center for subscriber assistance". The State has a 260,000-square-foot (24,000 m2) building completed in 1988, three miles (5 km) south of downtown.[3]

History

The newspaper, first published on February 18, 1891.[4][5] was founded by two brothers, N.G. Gonzales and A.G. Gonzales.[3] In 1903, N. G. Gonzales was fatally shot by lieutenant governor James H. Tillman. Tillman was acquitted of murder charges.

In 1945, The State bought its rival, the Columbia Record. The paper remained family-owned until 1986, when Knight Ridder purchased The State-Record Co. and six subsidiaries (including the Sun Herald and The Sun News) for $311 million. In 2006, Knight Ridder was purchased by McClatchy.

References

  1. ^ "2007 Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the U.S. by Circulation" (PDF). Burrelles Luce. 2007-03-31. http://www.burrellesluce.com/top100/2007_Top_100List.pdf. Retrieved 2007-06-01. 
  2. ^ TheState.com
  3. ^ a b TheState.com Web page titled "About The State" at The State Web site, accessed April 6, 2007
  4. ^ "The McClatchy Company Newspapers: The State". The McClatchy Company. http://www.mcclatchy.com/146/story/367.html. Retrieved 2006-11-07. 
  5. ^ "Contact Us: About The State". The State. http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/contact_us/about_np1/. Retrieved 2006-11-07. 

External links

South Carolina portal
Journalism portal