 | |
| Type | Dailynewspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Baltimore Sun Media Group/Tribune Publishing |
| Publisher | Tim Thomas |
| Editor | Brooks DuBose |
| Sports editor | Anthony Maluso |
| Photo editor | J. Bill |
| Founded | 1884; 141 years ago (1884) (asEvening Capital) |
| Headquarters | 888 Bestgate Road, Suite 104,Annapolis, Maryland, U.S. |
| Circulation | 30,274 daily 35,155 Sunday |
| Website | capitalgazette |
The Capital (also known asCapital Gazette as its onlinenameplate[1] and informally,[2][3] while the Sunday edition is calledThe Sunday Capital) is a dailynewspaper published byCapital Gazette Communications inAnnapolis, Maryland, to serve the city of Annapolis, much ofAnne Arundel County, and neighboringKent Island inQueen Anne's County. First published as theEvening Capital on May 12, 1884,[4] the newspaper switched to mornings on March 9, 2015.[5]
The company has moved headquarters seven times, including from 3 Church Circle to 213 West Street in 1948, to 2000 Capital Drive in 1987, to Gibralter Road after that, and to 888 Bestgate Road in 2014.[citation needed]
The Capital was acquired byThe Baltimore Sun Media Group in 2014.[6]
The newspaper was founded in 1884 as theEvening Capital and operated under this name until June 20, 1981, when it was shortened to justThe Capital.[7] Its founder was William M. Abbott, a former compositor forThe Baltimore Sun, who employed his daughter Emma Abbott Gage as the newspaper's editor and his son Charles B. Abbott as business manager.
In 1910, Abbott purchased the weeklyMaryland Gazette from Col. Phillip E. Porter and merged the paper with hisCapital, creating theEvening Capital and Maryland Gazette.[8][9]In the years following theCivil War, Annapolis faded economically, and the pages of theEvening Capital mostly reflected the local happenings of a sleepy, provincial town.[10] During the early 20th century, the expansion of the nearbyUnited States Naval Academy was recorded in the paper as a source of both optimism and concern for local citizens.[11] Abbott and his family handed over ownership of the paper to Ridgely P. Melvin in 1919, and it reverted to its original name ofEvening Capital in 1922.[12] Melvin subsequently sold theCapital to the Capital-Gazette Press Company in 1926.[13][14]
For much of the 20th century, theCapital was edited by Elmer Jackson, Jr., who had been appointed in 1931.[15] In 1959, it added a Saturday morning edition.[16]
In 1967, the newspaper and its sisters were sold toPhilip Merrill andLandmark Communications, which shared ownership.[17] Jackson was replaced as editor.[18] Under this ownership, which lasted until 2007, theCapital saw great success, with its circulation nearly tripling.[19] After Merrill's death in 2006, Landmark obtained full ownership of the paper; it kept this ownership until 2014, when theCapital and its related holdings were sold to the Baltimore Sun Media Group, atronc company.[20][21]
Its change to a seven-day-a-week morning paper was announced on February 8, 2015, and implemented on March 9.[5]
As of 2018,The Capital had a daily circulation around 33,000.[22] The papers are printed on a computerized high-speedGoss International Headliner press.
On June 28, 2018, aman killed five employees at theCapital Gazette offices in Annapolis:[23] journalists Rob Hiaasen,[24] Wendi Winters,[25] Gerald Fischman,[26] and John McNamara,[27] and sales assistant Rebecca Smith.[28]
The staff ofThe Capital and its parent company were subsequently chosen byTime asPerson of the Year 2018, as one of "The Guardians," a collection of journalists from around the world in their fight against the "War on Truth".[2] On April 15, 2019,The Capital received aPulitzer Prize Special Citation to "...honor the journalists, staff, and editorial board of theCapital Gazette, Annapolis, Maryland, for their courageous response to the largest killing of journalists in U.S. history in their newsroom on June 28, 2018, and for demonstrating unflagging commitment to covering the news and serving their community at a time of unspeakable grief."[3]