Frank Gannett | |
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 Gannett in 1940 | |
| Born | Frank Ernest Gannett (1876-09-15)September 15, 1876 Bristol, New York, U.S. |
| Died | December 3, 1957(1957-12-03) (aged 81) Rochester, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Cornell University (BA) |
| Occupation | Publisher |
| Known for | Founded the media corporationGannett Company |
| Spouse | |
Frank Ernest Gannett (September 15, 1876 – December 3, 1957) was an American publisher who founded the media corporationGannett Company. He began his career in 1906 as half owner of theElmira Gazette. He soon added newspapers inIthaca,Rochester,Utica, and other cities inUpstate New York. At the time of his death, the chain included twenty-two daily newspapers, four radio stations, and three television stations, largely based in the state of New York.
Gannett was known for granting editorial autonomy to the different media, while consolidating and standardizing business procedures and purchases. Gannett dislikedsensationalism, so his media played down crime and scandal, and rejected advertising for liquor.
AconservativeRepublican, he was active in state and national politics. He was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor of New York in 1936, and in 1942 was assistant chairman of theRepublican National Committee. In 1935, he established the Gannett Foundation to own the business, and provide philanthropy.
Gannett was born inBristol, New York, on September 15, 1876, to Charles and Maria Gannett. Gannett was one of four children and was raised inSouth Bristol, New York, by parents struggling to make ends meet[citation needed] first as farmers and later as hotel owners. Gannett's interest in the newspaper business began as a child, when he was anewspaper delivery boy for theDemocrat and Chronicle. This job provided Gannett with money to buy his own clothes as well as some pocket money.
After graduating from Bolivar High School in 1893, Gannett took a year off from schooling to raise enough money to further his education. During his break, Gannett also took a competitive exam for a scholarship. Gannett was awarded the scholarship and began his college career atCornell University.[1] He was closely associated with Rochester'sUnitarian Church.[2]
Frank entered Cornell as part of the class of 1898 with $80 to his name. At Cornell, Gannett held five jobs and studied a variety of subjects. Since schools of journalism did not exist at the time, Gannett took courses in literature, history, civil and criminal law, government, Greek, and Latin. At the end of his freshman year, Gannett was elected as his class' correspondent for the school's newspaper,The Cornell Daily Sun. Gannett held this post for one year until he acquired a paying job as a campus reporter forThe Ithaca Journal.[3] Soon after, he began selling reports to other newspapers as well. A quickly increasing demand led to Gannett hiring a group of students to help. Throughout his college career, Gannett worked for various magazines and newspapers. Gannett's time at Cornell was a successful one, leaving school with a B.A. degree and $1,000 as well.[4]
In the summer of 1898, Gannett joined theSyracuse Herald news staff, and quickly decided to forgo this job in favor of returning toCornell University for his master's degree. Upon his return, Gannett was bombarded with requests for his news about Cornell from the newspapers clients he had served as an undergraduate. Gannett became so busy meeting these demands that he never found time to register for graduate classes that fall.[5] He returned to Cornell University the following year determined to complete his graduate degree, but did not stay long. In the early weeks of 1899, Gannett was offered the secretarial position forWilliam McKinley's Commission to visit thePhilippines, and by March he arrived inManila. Gannett stayed in the Philippines for a year, learning of foreign politics and culture. Upon his return, he accepted a job as city editor for theIthaca News. He also became editor of thePittsburg Index in 1905.[6]
In 1906, Gannett became half owner of the daily newspaper theElmira Gazette. Within the year, Gannett merged theElmira Gazette andElmira Star forming the ElmiraStar-Gazette, which is still in circulation. Throughout his career, Gannett was known as "The Great Hyphenator". The media magnate was known to buy and merge money-losing dailies to create profit.[7] Six years later, in 1912 the partners also purchased theIthaca Journal. Gannett left Elmira in 1918, when he and his partner, Erwin Davenport turned their sights toRochester, New York where a "politico-journalistic dog fight" between three evening newspapers caught their eye. Gannett and his partner sought to buyThe Union and Advertiser and theTimes, but they required $250,000 in cash. The two partners raised the money through friends and bank loans. Once purchased, the newspapers were merged into theRochester Times-Union.[8]
Gannett moved his headquarters toRochester, New York, to supervise the news end of his newly acquired newspaper. The company's headquarters remained in Rochester until 1986, when it was relocated toArlington County, Virginia. Gannett and Davenport lived in a hotel walking distance from their offices. Gannett spent his time tracking down news while Davenport searched for advertisers. While in Rochester, Gannett met his wife, Caroline Werner; they married in March 1920. By 1922, Gannett and Davenport were seeing signs of success. TheTimes-Union had downed its competition, thePost-Express, and was beginning to turn a profit. This success, though, did not anticipate the arrival of fellow newspaper businessmanWilliam Randolph Hearst.[9]
William Randolph Hearst, another media magnate of the time, is often portrayed as Gannett's rival. The pair's rivalry came to head particularly in the 1920s. Up until that point, Rochester had been monopolized by the Gannett Corporation while theAlbany newspapers were mostly under the control of Hearst. This changed in 1922, when William Randolph Hearst attempted to break into the Rochester newspaper business. This proved to be highly unsuccessful, as it was reported that Hearst began losing $100,000 a year. To combat Hearst's entrance to the Rochester newspaper business, Gannett brought theKnickerbocker Press andAlbany Evening News in 1928. TheKnickerbocker Press was circulated in the morning while theAlbany Evening News was circulated in the evening and was a direct competitor ofAlbanyTimes Union, Hearst's newspaper. By 1937, Gannett monopolized not only the Rochester newspaper business but the Albany one as well. It was at this time that Hearst and Gannett struck a deal. William Randolph Hearst pulled out of Rochester, where at one point he was bribing citizens with new cars in order to attract new customers. In exchange Gannett consolidated theKnickerbocker Press andAlbany Evening News into a single evening newspaper called theKnickerbocker Press. Hearst then transferred theTimes Union to the morning field unopposed. The deal left Hearst disappointed yet feeling wiser and sounder. Hearst felt "sounder because he was putting his financial house in order all along the line and had just concluded a constructive deal in Rochester and Albany, N. Y."[10]
Ever the businessman, Hearst continuously offered to buy theTimes-Union from Gannett, Davenport, and their friend Woodard J. Copeland. By 1923, this seemed to be an appealing deal to Davenport and Copeland, as both were in poor health. If the two went through with the deal, it would ultimately leave Gannett out in the cold. So he decided to make his friends an offer they could not refuse. If given enough time to raise $250,000, Gannett would buy both of their stakes in theTimes-Union, making him the sole owner. In order to obtain these funds, Gannett formed a new corporation, Gannett Co., Inc. So, at age 48, Frank Gannett became the owner of six newspapers in five upstate New York cities. In 1928, Gannett purchased the RochesterDemocrat and Chronicle, the paper for which he first worked as a paperboy.
Throughout his life, Gannett was active in politics. A majority of Gannett's newspapers were in solidRepublican territory. Gannett always sent his pronouncements to his editors with a note, "For your information and use, if desired", and editors were free to ignore them. Gannett backedFranklin D. Roosevelt during his early years of his presidency but by the late 1930s withdrew his support. Gannett, amongst others, took a publicly neutral stand to theNew Deal in 1936, though he privately disapproved of it, and actively campaigned against it later in the decade. He was a founding member of theNational Committee to Uphold Constitutional Government and organized opposition to President Roosevelt'scourt-packing scheme of 1937, as well as the bulk of Roosevelt's proposed responses to the1937 recession.[11][7] Frank Gannett briefly ran for the 1940 Republican presidential nomination, but lost toWendell Willkie.[7]
Gannett spent the rest of his life tirelessly working to build his corporation. He expanded his company to include both TV and radio stations. Though he never founded a paper, he "bought with an auditor's sure eye; in all, Publisher Gannett acquired 30 papers (plus a string of TV and radio stations) in 51 years, merged ten, and unloaded only three."[7] Gannett was able to acquire more papers than any other American publisher has without the help of an inheritance. Though he suffered fromdiabetes, the publisher refused to slow down.
In 1948, when Gannett suffered from a stroke, he slowed down. Due to aspinal fracture in 1955, Gannett transferred management duties and the presidency of Gannett Co. toPaul Miller.
Gannett died on December 3, 1957, of complications suffered from a fall the previous April.
Gannett, who started off with virtually nothing, built an empire that continues on to this day. His obituary inTime magazine read that "Gannett, 81, [was a] publisher-founder of an empire that includes 22 newspapers, four radio and three TV stations."[12] Gannett is buried in historicMt. Hope Cemetery inRochester, New York.[13]
The Gannett Corporation remains a major media empire andholding company to this day. The company has 92 daily newspapers in circulation today in the United States, includingUSA Today, the nation's No. 1 newspaper. Gannett Corporation newspapers reach 11.6 million readers every weekday and 12 million every Sunday. By 2012, the company also owned 23 TV stations that reached 21 million households, roughly 18 percent of the United States population.[14] On June 29, 2015, Gannett changed its name toTegna after spinning off its publishing business into a new company called Gannett.[15]
The libraries atElmira College,[16]Utica University,[17] andIthaca College[18] are named for him, in addition to the student health center atCornell University (Gannett Health Services)[19] and the building that houses the printing and photography programs atRochester Institute of Technology.[20] The Frank E. Gannett Field House atWilson College inChambersburg, Pennsylvania is named after him.[21]
In 1939, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree fromOglethorpe University[22] and an honor Doctor of Letters degree fromKeuka College.[23]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Frank E. Gannett Memorial Library at Utica College accessed February 17, 2008| International | |
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