Shreveport Journal

The Shreveport Journal is a former American newspaper published originally by H. P. Benton in Shreveport and Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana.^[1]

The name The Journal was adopted on February 17, 1897. Previously the publication had been known for several years as The Judge. William E. Hamilton, another of several early owners, obtained the newspaper about 1900 and held it until 1911, when it was acquired by the Journal Publishing Company, with A. J. Frantz as the president and Douglas F. Attaway, Sr., as secretary. By 1918, Attaway had acquired controlling interest; in 1925, he became the president and publisher. Upon the senior Attaway's death in 1957, his son, Douglas F. "Doug" Attaway, Jr., succeeded his father as both the president and publisher.^[2] Attaway graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Missouri in Columbia. From 1966 to 1979, he was also the chairman of the board of KSLA-TV, the CBS affiliate established in 1954 and the first television outlet in Shreveport. Attaway sold KSLA to Viacom. He was also a former chairman of the board of Newspaper Production Company and the Attaway Newspaper Group, Inc.^[3]

In 1972, Attaway wrote an article on a total eclipse, the phenomenon in which the moon totally blocks the rays of the sun, which occurred on July 10 of that year. Attaway and his long-term photo editor, Jack Barham, journeyed to New York City to observe the two-minute eclipse, having found their desirable spot of view under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.^[4]

In 1974, Attaway recruited Stanley R. Tiner from the rival Shreveport Times to become the editor of The Journal. A Webster Parish native reared in Shreveport, Tiner graduated with a journalism degree from Louisiana Tech University. In 1976, Attaway sold The Journal to the Shreveport industrialist and philanthropist Charles T. Beaird, who had served in the late 1950s as a Republican for one term on the former Caddo Parish Police Jury. Tiner and Beaird moved the editorial position of The Journal to the political left, whereas it had been clearly conservative and earlier segregationist under Attaway and a previous editor, George W. Shannon.^[5]

The late Shreveport historian Eric John Brock wrote a regular column "The Presence of the Past" for The Journal.^[6]

The Times and the The Journal shared a building at 222 Lake Street, although they were separately owned and editorially independent. The Times remains at the Lake Street location.

Closure in 1991

On January 29, 1991, Beaird announced that The Journal would terminate its daily operations two months later on March 30. The publication had steadily lost circulation and hence critical advertising revenues during the preceding decade. Readership dropped from a peak of nearly 40,000 to barely 16,000. "There just comes a time when it becomes uneconomical to go on. It was a very tough, sad decision," Beaird said.^[7]

Though The Journal had closed as a daily paper in 1991, Beaird contracted an agreement with The Times to carry on its op-ed page called "Journal Page", which permitted continuing editorial comment approved by Beaird and managed by his editor, Jim Montgomery (1945-2013), also a native of Webster Parish. The "Journal Page" finally ended its run on December 31, 1999.^[2]

Under Beaird, The Journal won several important prizes, including the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Coverage of the Disadvantaged by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Mass Media Gold Medallion for stories on African American history, and the Scripps-Howard National Journalism Awards for Editorial Writing.^[7] "Journal Page" was a finalist in 1994 for a Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing for a series on decriminalization of narcotics.^[8] Years later in 2006, Stanley Tiner's staff at The Sun Herald in Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi, won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for its reporting of Hurricane Katrina the previous year.^[9]

Notable Journal staffers

In addition to the aforementioned George Shannon, Stanley Tiner, Eric Brock, and Jack Barham, other notable Journal staffers include:

• Jerry Byrd, sports editor, later with Bossier Press-Tribune in Bossier City^[10]
• Lane Crockett, staff member from 1968 to 1977, later with Shreveport Times, entertainment editor, syndicated by Gannett
• Marshall Douglas, religion editor in the 1970s
• James H. Greene (1917-1988), staff writer prior to 1950, candidate for United States House of Representatives in 1950,^[11] former Caddo Parish deputy sheriff^[12]
• Bob Griffin, travel author in the 1960s and 1970s while sports editor at KSLA-TV
• Chet Hilburn, reporter, author of The Mystique of Tiger Stadium: 25 Greatest Games: The Ascension of LSU Football (2012)^[13]

Perry Roy Keith, Jr., city editor of the former Shreveport Journal, is show in his American Legion cap.

• Bill Keith, former city editor, later Shreveport Times investigative reporter, and member of the Louisiana State Senate^[14]
• Perry Roy Keith, Jr. (1924-1998), former city editor, previously worked for The Shreveport Times; great-nephew of Perry Keith, a founder of Keithville, Louisiana^[15]
• William Howard "Bill" Lee (1925-2014), state editor during 1960s and 1970s in charge of regional reporting and management of the correspondents, native of Kosciusko, Mississippi, United States Navy veteran of World War II, journalism graduate of the University of Mississippi, reporter and editor for a number of weekly and daily papers in West and Central Texas prior to his 16-year association with The Journal; with his wife, a charter member of the South Bossier Baptist Church^[16]
• Carl Liberto, former managing editor^[17]
• Lois Norder, last Journal city editor (1988-1991), later managing editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram^[18]
• Robert "Bob" Mann, reporter (early 1980s); currently holds the Douglas Manship Chair of Journalism at LSU in Baton Rouge]; inductee of the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame^[19]
• John James Marshall, sports writer (1981-1991), later alumni affairs director at Loyola University New Orleans^[20]
• Veronica "Ronni" Patriquin Clark, The Journal staff (1976-1991), director of the Capitol Bureau in Baton Rouge, later with Mobile Press-Register^[21]
• Ed Pettis, Bill Lee's successor as state editor, middle 1970s
• Rupert Peyton, city editor of The Journal from 1925 to 1940; former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives; strongly anti-Long politician^[22]
• Charles C. Phillips, columnist^[23]
• John Andrew Prime, staff writer at The Journal prior to 1978, since with the Shreveport Times^[24]
• Alan Wayne Stonecipher (born 1950), former Journal reporter, public policy analyst in Tallahassee, Florida, director of communications for the think tank, the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy, former press secretary to U.S. Representative Jerry Huckaby of Louisiana's 5th congressional district and former Governor Bob Graham of Florida; brother of Shreveport political consultant Elliott Stonecipher^[25]
• Bailey Thomson, staff writer, later with Mobile Press-Register and associate professor of journalism at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa^[26]
• Nico A. Van Thyn, The Journal sports writer, later with Shreveport Times and Fort Worth Star-Telegram, son of Rose Van Thyn, a survivor of The Holocaustt^[27]
• Rick Woodson (c. 1940-2013), sports editor in 1960s and 1970s^[28]

References