| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner | Lee Enterprises |
| Founder | James E. Stevens |
| Managing editor | Jessica Abell[1] |
| Founded | 1894; 131 years ago (1894) |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | 232 W Main StHamilton, Montana 59840 |
| Country | United States |
| Circulation | 707 (in 2023)[2] |
| OCLC number | 14222444 |
| Website | ravallirepublic |
Ravalli Republic is a dailynewspaper published inHamilton, Montana. It is owned byLee Enterprises and servesRavalli County.[3]
On August 22, 1894, James E. Stevens published the first edition ofTheRavalli Republican.[4] In 1899, Stevens purchased theBitter Root Times from L.J. Knapp and absorbed it into his paper.[5] In 1902, theRavaili County Democrat went out of business and its owner, E.A. Sherman, joined Stevens as partner at theRepublican.[6] In 1903, Stevens sold his shares in the Hamilton Publishing Company to Sherman.[7]
In 1904, J.C. Conkey, who previously worked at theStevensville Register, leased theRavalli Republican from Sherman.[8] He eventually acquired ownership and died in 1932,[9] and his widow then leased the paper to J.B. Ellis. She sold the paper in 1940 to Jack E. Coulter. Two years later he expanded publication frequency from weekly to daily.[10] In 1958, Coulter acquired theNorthwest Tribune ofStevensville.[11]
In 1963, Coulter sold the two papers to George A. Danker, who ran an advertising agency inDenver.[12] In 1974, theRepublican was renamed to theRepublic.[13] In 1975, Edward Scripps acquired theRepublic andTribune from Danker.[14] The papers were operated by Southwest Montana Publishing Co., an affiliate ofScripps League Newspapers. In 1976, Scripps acquiredThe Western News ofStevensville.[15] A year later theNews was merged into theRepublic.[16] In 1996, Scripps was bought byPulitzer, Inc.[17] In 2005,Lee Enterprises acquired Pulitzer.[18]