| Type | Twice Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Small format broadsheet |
| Owner | Daily Press |
| Founded | 1930 |
| Headquarters | Williamsburg, Virginia |
| Official website | vagazette.com |
The Virginia Gazette is the local newspaper of Williamsburg, Virginia. Established in 1930, it is named for the historical Virginia Gazette published between 1736 and 1780. It is published twice a week in the broadsheet format.
Contents |
There were actually three papers published in Williamsburg under the name The Virginia Gazette between 1736 and 1780. Together, these papers serve as an important record for Virginia's colonial history. The original Virginia Gazette, the first newspaper ever published in Virginia, was established by William Parks, who printed the first four-page edition on August 6, 1736. Its motto was "Containing the freshest Advices, Foreign and Domestick." Three years earlier, Parks had founded The Maryland Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland. In 1743, Parks built a paper mill in Williamsburg; he purchased the raw material to create newsprint from Benjamin Franklin. The paper was published, successively, by Parks (1736–1750), William Hunter (1751–1761), Joseph Royle (1761–1765), Alexander Purdie and John Dixon (1766-1775), Dixon and Hunter (1775-1778), and Dixon and Thomas Nicolson (1779–1780). The last issue was published on April 8, 1780, after which point the paper relocated to Richmond, Virginia's new capital.[1]
In 1766 William Rind founded a competing newspaper also called the The Virginia Gazette. This paper was published by Rind (1766-1773), then by his widow Clemintina Rind (1773-1774), and finally John Pinkney (1774-1776). Its last issue was printed on February 3, 1776.[1] On February 3, 1775, Alexander Purdie, previously a publisher of the original Gazette, started a third paper of the same name. It was published by Purdie until his death in 1779; it was then published by John Clarkson and Augustine Davis until December 9, 1780.[1] Afterward, various papers were published periodically around Virginia using the Virginia Gazette banner.[2][3]
In 1930, W. A. R. Goodwin, pastor of the local Bruton Parish Church and architect of Colonial Williamsburg, made a push for a paper to return to Williamsburg under the banner of The Virginia Gazette. At Goodwin's urging publisher J. A. Osborne moved to town from Florida and established the modern paper. It was published weekly until 1984, when twice-weekly publication began.[2] In 1961 the Osborne family sold the paper to John O. W. Gravely III.[2]
The paper won Virginia's Copeland Award three times for community excellence in publishing, in 1969, 1980 and 1994. Long a weekly newspaper, the Gazette expanded to twice-weekly in 1984. It is now owned by the Daily Press, a Tribune Co. daily in Newport News, Virginia.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||