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.jpg) Front page of theMontgomery Advertiser, July 19, 2009 | |
| Type | Dailynewspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Gannett |
| President | Michael Galvin |
| Editor | Paige O. Windsor |
| Founded | 1829 (asThe Planter's Gazette) |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | 425 Molton St. Montgomery, Alabama, 36104 |
| Circulation | 8,735 (daily) 11,792 (Sunday) |
| Website | montgomeryadvertiser |
TheMontgomery Advertiser is a dailynewspaper and news website located inMontgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1829.
The newspaper began publication in 1829 asThe Planter's Gazette. Its first editor wasMoseley Baker. It became theMontgomery Advertiser in 1833.
In 1903, Richard F. Hudson Sr., a young Alabama newspaperman, joined the staff of theAdvertiser and rose through the ranks of the newspaper. Hudson was central to improving the financial situation of the newspaper, and by 1924 he owned 10% of its stock. Hudson purchased the remaining shares of the company in 1935, and five years later he bought theAlabama Journal, a competitor founded in Montgomery in 1889. Ownership of theAdvertiser subsequently passed from Hudson's heirs toCarmage Walls (1963), through Multimedia Corp. (1968) toGannett (1995).[1]
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Grover C. Hall, Jr. (1915–1971) worked at the paper from age 20 and served 15 years as editor afterWorld War II. He allied with the politicianGeorge C. Wallace in 1958.[2] In 1975, the newspaper investigated the shooting ofBernard Whitehurt by police and wrote news stories that questioned the original police reports.[5] To counter claims that newspaper was fabricating stories, publisherHarold E. Martin took and passed a polygraph.[5]
The Alabama Journal continued as a local afternoon paper until April 16, 1993, when it published its last issue before merging with the morningAdvertiser.[3] TheAdvertiser is the largest of the 22 daily newspapers published in Alabama.[citation needed]
While theAdvertiser opposedsecession in 1861, after theCivil War it aligned itself with the cause ofwhite supremacy.[4]
According to a 2018 review by theAdvertiser itself, from 1883 to the early 1900s the paper covered the region's frequentlynchings ambivalently. While it nominally condemned the mob murders ofblack people, its coverage assumed that the victims were guilty of crimes, such as a 1919 editorial that held that "as long as there are attempts at rape by black men,red men oryellow men on white women there will be lynchings". Consequently, the paper's proposals on how to address lynchings focused on how the accused could more efficiently be legally executed instead. It also tended to be more concerned about how lynchings might be treated by Northern papers than about the crimes themselves.[5] In an editorial published on the occasion of the 2018 opening of theNational Memorial for Peace and Justice, the editorial board recognized the paper's "own shameful place in the history of these dastardly, murderous deeds", acknowledging that the paper's "careless" coverage of lynchings was "wrong".[6]
The newspaper won the first of its threePulitzer Prize awards under the direction ofGrover C. Hall (1888–1941), who came to theAdvertiser in 1910 and served as editor from 1926 until his death. TheAdvertiser waged war on theKu Klux Klan during the 1920s, and became nationally prominent for its coverage and editorial stance.[1][7] Hall later argued for release of the blackScottsboro Boys.[8] Nonetheless, by the 1950s, the paper's coverage of thecivil rights movement was "indifferent and antagonistic", often criticizing civil rights activists and their goals.[4]
In 2004, Wanda Lloyd became theAdvertiser's first black executive editor.[4]
The newspaper has earned numerous state, regional and national awards, including threePulitzer Prizes:
In 1995, theMontgomery Advertiser was recognized by the Pulitzer Prize for work that probed management self-interest, questionable practices, and employee racial discrimination allegations in theSPLC.[11][12]
For its probe of questionable management practices and self-interest at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the nation's best-endowed civil rights charity.
In 1995, the Montgomery Advertiser had been a Pulitzer finalist for a series that documented, among other things, staffers' allegations of racial discrimination within the organization.
Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting (1985–2000) | ||
|---|---|---|
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting from 1985–1990 and the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting from 1991–1997 | ||
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