Montgomery Advertiser
 Front page of the Montgomery Advertiser, July 19, 2009 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Gannett Company |
| Publisher | Robert Granfeldt, Jr. |
| Editor | Wanda S. Lloyd |
| Founded |
1829 (as The Planter's Gazette) |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters |
425 Molton St. Montgomery, Alabama, 36104 USA |
| Circulation |
46,725 (daily) 61,500 (Sunday) |
| Official website | www.montgomeryadvertiser.com |
The Montgomery Advertiser is a daily newspaper located in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1829.
History
The newspaper began publication in 1829 as The Planter's Gazette. It became the Montgomery Advertiser in 1833. In 1903, R.F. Hudson, a young Alabama newspaperman, joined the staff of the Advertiser and rose through the ranks of the newspaper. Hudson was central to improving the financial situation of the newspaper, and by 1924 he owned 10% of its stock. Hudson purchased the remaining shares of the company in 1935, and five years later he bought The Alabama Journal, a competitor founded in Montgomery in 1889. Ownership of the Advertiser subsequently passed from Hudson's heirs to Carmage Walls (1963), through Multimedia Corp. (1968) to Gannett (1995).[1]
Grover C. Hall (1888–1941) came to the Advertiser in 1910 and served as editor from 1926 until his death. The Advertiser says today that it "waged war on the resurgent Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s, when Hall became nationally prominent for that work and won the paper's first Pulitzer Prize.[1][2] A decade later he argued for release of the black Scottsboro Boys.[3]
One December 1938 editorial by Hall was published in the U.S. Congressional Record on January 17, 1939: "The Egregious Gentile Called to Account".[4] It carried the subtitle: "Clinical notes on his lack of gallantry and sportsmanship, his bad mental habits, his tactlessness, his lack of imagination, his poor discernment, his faults as citizen and neighbor, his gullibility and arrogance." Hall concluded that in order to save "the lovely pillars of civilization we shall have to purge ourselves. That striding Colossus known as the Nordic Gentile must be born again."[5]
Grover C. Hall, Jr. (1915–1971) worked at the paper from age twenty and served fifteen years as editor after World War II. He allied with George C. Wallace in 1958.[6]
The Alabama Journal continued as a local afternoon paper until April 16, 1993, when it published its last issue before merging with the morning Advertiser.[7]
In October 2008, the Advertiser, which describes itself as having been "the leading newspaper of the new Confederate states",[1] endorsed the presidential candidacy of Illinois African-American Senator Barack Obama.[8]
Of the 22 daily newspapers published in Alabama, the Advertiser has the highest daily circulation. It had the fourth highest daily circulation in Alabama until the Birmingham News, Huntsville Times and Press-Register (Mobile and Baldwin counties) reduced their publications to three days a week.[9]
Awards
The newspaper has earned several awards including three Pulitzer Prizes:
- 1928: Grover C. Hall, Editorial Writing, for "his editorials against gangsterism, floggings and racial and religious intolerance."[2]
- 1970: Harold E. Martin, Investigative Reporting, for "his expose of a commercial scheme for using Alabama prisoners for drug experimentation and obtaining blood plasma from them."[10]
- 1988: Staff of The Alabama Journal, General News Reporting, for "its compelling investigation of the state's unusually high infant-mortality rate, which prompted legislation to combat the problem."[11]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "History of the Montgomery Advertiser". Montgomery Advertiser: a Gannett Company. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Editorial Writing". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
- ↑ The Journal of Southern History 50:2 (May 1984) pp. 332–34. Review by Charles W. Eagles, University of Mississipi, of An Alabama Newspaper Tradition: Grover C. Hall and the Hall Family. Daniel Webster Hollis III. University of Alabama. 1983. Pages 332–34 at jstor.org. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
- ↑ "Hall, Grover Cleveland, 1884{sic} – 1941". Alabama Authors. The University of Alabama Libraries. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
- ↑ "The Egregious Gentile Called to Account". Grover C. Hall, Editor The Montgomery Advertiser. The Florence Times (Florence, AL), December 10, 1938. Image at Google News. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
- ↑ "Hall, Grover Cleveland, Jr., 1915-1971". Alabama Authors. UA Libraries. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
- ↑ The Alabama Journal, April 16, 1993, p. 1.
- ↑ "Editorial: Obama Better Candidate to Lead America", The Montgomery Advertiser, October 26, 2008, p. A7.
- ↑ Alabama Press Association: 2008 Ratesheet.
- ↑ "Local Investigative Specialized Reporting". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
- ↑ "General News Reporting". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
External links
- Official website (Mobile)
- Today's Montgomery Advertiser front page at the Newseum website
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