 Publication building of theChronicle Telegraph andGazette Times (1915–1927), theSun-Telegraph (1927–1960), and thePost-Gazette (1960–1961). | |
| Type | Evening daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Hearst Corporation (from 1927) |
| Founded | August 1, 1927 (from merger) |
| Ceased publication | 1960 |
| Headquarters | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States |
| OCLC number | 2266192 |
ThePittsburgh Sun-Telegraph was an evening daily newspaper published inPittsburgh,Pennsylvania from 1927 to 1960. Part of theHearst newspaper chain, it competed withThe Pittsburgh Press and thePittsburgh Post-Gazette until being purchased and absorbed by the latter paper.
TheSun-Telegraph's history can be traced back through its 19th- and early 20th-century forebears: theChronicle,Telegraph,Chronicle Telegraph, andSun.
TheMorning Chronicle was established on June 26, 1841 by Richard George Berford. At first a semi-weekly paper, it became a daily on September 8 of the same year. The original editor was 19-year-oldJ. Heron Foster, who would later be the founding editor of theSpirit of the Age and thePittsburgh Dispatch.[1]
A weekly edition of the paper first appeared in November 1841 with the titleThe Iron City and Pittsburgh Weekly Chronicle.[2][3]
On August 30, 1851, the daily paper started issuing later in the day, becoming theEvening Chronicle.[4]
Historian Leland D. Baldwin described theChronicle's existence as "undistinguished for several decades".[5]
On January 2, 1884, thePittsburgh Evening Chronicle merged with thePittsburgh Telegraph (founded in 1873 as thePittsburgh Evening Telegraph) to form thePittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph.[4]
In 1892, the Chronicle Telegraph Building on Fifth Avenue gained brief notoriety as the site where anarchistAlexander Berkman attempted to assassinate industrialistHenry Clay Frick.[6]
In October 1900 the paper sponsored theChronicle Telegraph Cup, a postseason baseball series won by theBrooklyn Superbas over thePittsburgh Pirates. Held only once, the contest was a precursor to the currentWorld Series.
Iron and steel manufacturerGeorge T. Oliver, later a U.S. senator, purchased the eveningChronicle Telegraph in November 1900 to complement the morning paper he had acquired earlier in the year, theCommercial Gazette.[7] The papers were soon housed under the same roof and frequently exchanged or shared staff members.[8] In 1915, a new eight-story building on the current site of theU.S. Steel Tower opened as home to theChronicle Telegraph along with Oliver's merged and retitled morning paper, theGazette Times.[9]
Upon the death of George T. Oliver in 1919, control of theChronicle Telegraph andGazette Times passed to his sons George S. and Augustus K. Oliver.[10]
ThePittsburgh Sun was an evening paper first issued on March 1, 1906 by the publisher of the morningPittsburgh Post.[11][12]
On August 1, 1927,William Randolph Hearst completed a purchase of the two Oliver papers (Gazette Times andChronicle Telegraph), including the building. He coordinated the transaction with publisherPaul Block, who at the same time became owner of Pittsburgh's other morning-evening combination: thePost andSun. An immediately ensuing trade between the two buyers gave Hearst both evening dailies, which he merged to form thePittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, while Block created thePittsburgh Post-Gazette from the two morning papers. The first issues of the new publications rolled off the presses the next day. The deal stipulated that theSun-Telegraph, but not thePost-Gazette, would publish on Sundays, even though the latter paper's predecessors had Sunday editions and the former's did not. The combined Sunday circulation that thePost-Gazette would have inherited was instead transferred to the SundaySun-Telegraph.[13][14]
TheSun-Telegraph was patterned after Hearst's other twenty-five newspapers in its use of screaming headlines, large type, sensational reporting, unconventional picture layouts, splashes of color, and front-page box scores.[15][16]
In the 1950s the "Sun-Telly" was losing subscribers and advertisers to its direct competitor in the evening and Sunday fields—thePittsburgh Press—and to a lesser degree thePost-Gazette. ThePost-Gazette's co-publisher William Block Sr. later recalled that "ThePress, which had a great deal of newer equipment, was in a position to give later news, better distribution, and was killing [theSun-Telegraph] on Sunday."[17]
In 1960 the Hearst organization sold its floundering Pittsburgh operation to thePost-Gazette, which in absorbing its rival gained a Sunday edition. The deal turned out badly for the purchaser: The Sunday edition proved unprofitable; theSun-Telegraph building, which served as the newPost-Gazette headquarters, was uncomfortable and inefficient; and many formerSun-Telegraph subscribers, preferring to remain evening readers, switched to thePittsburgh Press.[18][19] These problems helped spur thePost-Gazette to enter into ajoint operating agreement with the strongerPress in the following year.[20]
ThePost-Gazette bore the subtitle "Sun-Telegraph" from 1960 through 1977, though by late 1962 the subtitle's font size had gradually shrunk to almost unnoticeable proportions.[21]
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