Richmond Times-Dispatch

Richmond Times-Dispatch
The June 19, 2013 front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	Berkshire Hathaway
Publisher	Thomas A. Silvestri
Editor	Daniel Finnegan
Founded	1850 (as the Richmond Dispatch)
Headquarters	300 East Franklin Street Richmond, Virginia 23219 United States
Circulation	102,586 (average weekday) 152,446 (Sunday) ^[1]
Website	timesdispatch.com

The Richmond Times-Dispatch (RTD or TD for short) is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond, the capital of Virginia, United States.

Circulation

The Times-Dispatch has the second-highest circulation of any Virginia newspaper, after Norfolk's The Virginian-Pilot.^[2] In addition to the Richmond area (including Petersburg, Chester, Hopewell Colonial Heights and surrounding areas), the Times-Dispatch has substantial readership in Charlottesville, Lynchburg, and Waynesboro. As the primary paper of the state's capital, the Times-Dispatch serves as a newspaper of record for rural regions of the state that lack large local papers.

History and notable accomplishments

Development

The RTD has existed in some form for more than 150 years. In 1850, a newspaper called the Daily Dispatch was founded. In 1886, a competitor, the Richmond Daily Times was founded by Lewis Ginter. A year later, Joseph Bryan (1845-1908) bought the Daily Times from Ginter, beginning the paper's long association with the Bryan family. In 1890, the Daily Times changed its name to the Richmond Times. In 1896, Bryan acquired the eight-year-old Manchester Leader and launched the Evening Leader. In 1899, the evening Richmond News was founded. John L. Williams, owner of the Dispatch, bought the News in 1900.

By 1903, it was obvious Richmond was not big enough to support four papers. That year, Williams and Bryan agreed to a merger of Richmond's main newspapers. The morning papers merged to become the Richmond Times-Dispatch under Bryan's ownership, while the evening papers merged to become The Richmond News Leader under Williams' ownership. Bryan bought the News Leader in 1908. After he died later that year, the land for Richmond's Joseph Bryan Park was donated by his widow, Isobel ("Belle") Stewart Bryan, and it is named for him.

John Stewart Bryan became owner and publisher of the two papers after his father's death. He sold controlling interest in the Times-Dispatch to three families in 1914, but reacquired it in 1940 when the two papers' business interests merged to form Richmond Newspapers, in which Bryan held a 54-percent interest. That conglomeration is now known as Media General.

On June 1, 1992, four days after its sponsored contestant Amanda Goad won the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the News Leader, which had been losing circulation for many years, ceased publication and was folded into the Times-Dispatch.

2004 Mosul attack

The Richmond Times-Dispatch drew national attention for its coverage of a December 21, 2004, attack by a suicide bomber on an American military base in Mosul, Iraq. The deadliest attack on an American military installation since the war began, the attack injured 69 people and killed 22, including two with the Virginia National Guard's Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion. Stories and photographs about the attack by a Times-Dispatch reporter embedded with the 276th were read, heard and seen across the nation.

Tacky Christmas lights tour

In 1990, The RTD borrowed an idea ^[3] from a local entrepreneur, Barry "Mad Dog" Gottlieb, to encourage a "Tacky Christmas Lights Tour," also known by locals as the "Tacky Light Tour". Every week, the RTD lists the addresses of houses where the most tacky Christmas lights can be found. This tradition has begun to spread to other cities, like Fairfax, Virginia (DC area) ^[4] as well as San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Political associations

Diane Cantor, the wife of former House Majority Leader Republican Eric Cantor, sits on Media General's Board of Directors.^[5] This drew some conflict-of-interest allegations because the RTD serves much of the congressman's 7th district, but no evidence surfaced that she is involved in the paper's content. Her association with the paper was noted at the end of Times-Dispatch stories about Rep. Cantor.

Media General sells its newspapers

On May 17, 2012, Media General ^[6] announced the sale of its newspaper division to BH Media, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway company. The sale included all of Media General's newspapers except The Tampa Tribune and its associated publications. Berkshire Hathaway bought 63 newspapers for $142 million and, as part of the deal, offered Media General a $400 million term loan at 10.5 percent interest that will mature in 2020 and a $45 million revolving line of credit. Berkshire Hathaway received a seat on Media General's board of directors and an option to purchase a 19.9% stake in the company.^[7] The deal closed on June 25, 2012.

This also brought to a close Diane Cantor's relationship with the RTD.

Content

Commentary, opinion, and editorials

A prominent newspaper in the state, the Times-Dispatch frequently features commentary from important figures from around Virginia, such as officials and presidents from Virginia Commonwealth University, The College of William and Mary, and the University of Virginia. Richmond Mayor Douglas Wilder, who had articles published in the paper before he held that position, often outlines policies his administration is implementing. During the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, its Commentary sections featured some pieces by Retired Admiral Roy Hoffmann, a founding member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and resident of Richmond suburb Chesterfield, against Democratic candidate John Kerry.

Editorially, the Times-Dispatch has historically leaned conservative, leading the paper to frequently endorse candidates of the Republican Party. It supported many of former President George W. Bush's policies, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq and a flat income tax. However, the paper is not unilaterally conservative; for example, a 2005 editorial called for the then House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to relinquish his leadership position on ethical grounds. There are also some liberal syndicated columnists who appear frequently, especially Paul Krugman.

During the Civil Rights Movement, the Times-Dispatch, like nearly every major newspaper in Virginia, was an ardent supporter of segregation.

Sports

Like most major papers, the sports section has MLB, NASCAR, MLS, NBA, NCAA, NFL, and NHL scores and results. The Times-Dispatch sports pages naturally focus on Richmond and Virginia professional and college teams. In addition to Richmond Flying Squirrels and Richmond Kickers coverage, readers can see in-depth coverage of the Washington Redskins in the fall and the Washington Nationals in the summer. "Virginians in the Pros" and similar features track all sorts of professional athletes who were born, lived in, or attended college in Virginia. Large automobile racing events like the Sprint Cup (at the Richmond International Raceway) are often given a separate preview guide.

Catering to the vast array of Virginia hunters, fishers, hikers, and outdoorsmen, somewhere between half a page to a whole page most days is dedicated to outdoors articles, currently written by Lee Graves, who succeeded Garvey Winegar in November 2003. The "Scoreboard," which features minor-league standings, Vegas betting, and other sports scores, also gives tide measurements, river levels, and skiing conditions, depending on the season.

Virginians have traditionally been highly supportive of high school athletics, and its flagship paper is a testament to that. Particular emphasis is given to American football and basketball; the Times-Dispatch ranks area teams in these sports, in the style of the NCAA polls, and generally updates them weekly. In the fall, Sunday editions have the scores of all high school football games played that weekend from across the state. Prep games are also receive above-average coverage in baseball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. Stories are frequently done on notable prep athletes, such as those from foreign countries, those with disabilities, those who play a multitude of sports, or those who had little or no prior experience in a sport which they now excel in.

Business

The business desk consists of six reporters; they cover technology, retail, energy, insurance, banking, economics, real estate, manufacturing, transportation and consumer issues. Unlike many newspapers, the Times-Dispatch produces a widely read Monday business section, Metro Business. It contains a center cover story on a regional business-related issue and is filled with events for the coming week, advice columnists and gadget reviews. In June 2006, the decision was made to remove the stock tables from the daily sections beginning July 15 and replace the numerous pages with a "Markets Review" section for subscribers who request it. The stock section was eliminated in 2009, as was the Sunday Real Estate section (both were cost-cutting moves). The Sunday Business section, which previously was a showcase of general business-interest stories and features, has been rechristened Moneywise and now features primarily consumer-related coverage. Moneywise is also among select Sunday business sections nationwide that print Wall Street Journal Sunday pages.

Controversy

On July 12, 2006, Richmond-based news magazine Style Weekly ran a cover story ^[8] titled "Truth and Consequences," a piece that took a look at the Times-Dispatch's operations as the paper settled into its first year with new management. The report described new editor Glenn Proctor, who took over Nov. 14, 2005, as an "inelegant, blunt and harsh critic — to the point of saying, repeatedly, that some reporters' work 'sucks.'" The piece described a newsroom teetering on the edge, preparing for promised changes — such as possible layoffs, fewer pages and combined sections — that eventually were realized. On April 2, 2009, the Times-Dispatch cut 90 jobs, laying off 59 workers, including 28 newsroom jobs. Proctor left the paper in 2011.

The front page of the Times-Dispatch’s August 14, 2011 Sunday paper consisted entirely of a Wells Fargo advertisement, commemorating said bank’s acquisition of Wachovia properties in Virginia.^[9]