TheSentinel's predecessors date to 1876, when theOrange County Reporter was first published. TheReporter became a daily newspaper in 1905, and merged with theOrlando Evening Star in 1906. Another Orlando paper, theSouth Florida Sentinel, started publishing as a morning daily in 1913. Then known as theMorning Sentinel, it bought theReporter-Star in 1931, when Martin Andersen came to Orlando to manage both papers. Andersen eventually bought both papers outright in 1945, selling them to theTribune Company of Chicago in 1965.[10]
In 1973, the two publications merged into the dailySentinel Star. Tribune appointed Charles T. Brumback as president in 1976.[10] Harold "Tip" Lifvendahl was named president and publisher in 1981.[11] The newspaper was renamed theOrlando Sentinel in 1982. John Puerner succeeded Lifvendahl in 1993,[12] who was replaced by Kathleen M. Waltz in 2000.[13] In that same year the sentinel gained seven sister newspapers as Tribune Co. announces its merger with Times Mirror, adding the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant and three others to the Tribune Publishing operation.[14] Waltz announced her resignation in February 2008. Howard Greenberg, already publisher of fellow Tribune newspaper theSun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, was named publisher of both papers after Waltz left.[15]
In 2008, the Tribune Company called for a redesign of theSentinel. The new layout, which debuted in June 2008, was formatted to appeal to busy readers, though like all of the redesigns in Tribune'sSam Zell ownership era, was reeled back into a more traditional design with appealing elements kept after reader criticism.[16][17]
Editorially, theSentinel originally tilted conservative. From 1952 to 2004, it endorsed Republicans in every election save forLyndon Johnson in 1964.[22]
However, while many of Central Florida's surrounding communities remained ostensibly conservative, demographic and political shifts in the late 1990s/early 2000 in the central Orlando urban core and inn its immediately adjacent areas became increasingly liberal and/or progressive majority in their makeup. Following that trend, the paper has endorsed Democratic candidates for president in four of the last five presidential elections:John Kerry in 2004,Barack Obama in 2008,[23]Hillary Clinton in 2016,[24] andJoe Biden in 2020.[25]
In June 2019, the day of PresidentDonald Trump's re-election campaign launch rally in Orlando, theSentinel made national news when the editorial board published a piece saying it would not endorse the president, among their reasons, "the chaos, the division, the schoolyard insults, the self-aggrandizement, the corruption, and especially the lies."[22][26][27][28] It ultimately endorsed Biden, saying that he was "many things that Trump is not now and never will be."[25]
Scott Maxwell, Opinion columnist, was featured as a question onJeopardy![32] and is normally listed on the list of Orlando Magazine's Most Powerful People[33]
