 | |
 Front page of the March 28, 2024, edition | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper (until 1837); Dailynewspaper (since 1837) |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Tribune Publishing |
| Editor | Helen Bennett |
| Founded | October 29, 1764; 261 years ago (1764-10-29) (as theConnecticut Courant) |
| Headquarters | PO Box 569 Hartford,CT 06141 |
| Country | United States |
| Circulation | 19,400 Average print circulation[1] 135,609 Sunday (as of 2018)[2] |
| ISSN | 1047-4153 |
| OCLC number | 8807834 |
| Website | courant.com |
TheHartford Courant is the largest dailynewspaper in theU.S. state ofConnecticut, and is advertised as the oldest continuously published newspaper in theUnited States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north ofNew Haven and east ofWaterbury, its headquarters on Broad Street inHartford, Connecticut was a short walk from thestate capitol. It reports regional news with a chain of bureaus in smaller cities and a series of local editions. It also operatesCTNow, a free local weekly newspaper and website.
TheCourant began as a weekly called theConnecticut Courant on October 29, 1764, becoming daily in 1837. In 1979, it was bought by theTimes Mirror Company. In 2000, Times Mirror was acquired by theTribune Company, which later combined the paper's management and facilities with those of a Tribune-owned Hartfordtelevision station. TheCourant and other Tribune print properties were spun off to a new corporate parent,Tribune Publishing, separate from the station, in 2014. In 2020 printing operations ceased in Hartford and were outsourced to Springfield, MA.[3] At the heat of the COVID pandemic in December 2020 allHartford Courant staff permanently vacated the offices to work from home, and later in 2022 the printing press was dismantled and sold for scrap.[4]Tribune Publishing agreed in May 2021 to be acquired byAlden Global Capital, which operates its media properties throughDigital First Media. The transaction was finalized on May 25, 2021.[5] While Alden Global Capital had purchased the building on 285 Broad St. in Hartford for $6.9 million in 2018 through an LLC it was tied to, the building will be put up for absolute auction in November 2025.[6]
According to the Library of Congress' database of U.S. newspapers, the origins of theHartford Courant intertwines with the publication of the weeklyConnecticut Courant.[7] Founded by Thomas Green, theConnecticut Courant was first published on October 29, 1764.[8] In the years following 1774, the title of the paper would be changed toThe Connecticut Courant and Hartford Weekly Intelligencer, later simplified toThe Connecticut Courant, and the Weekly Intelligencer (1778 to 1791), then reverted to the original formThe Connecticut Courant from 1791 to 1914, when the publication ceased.[9]
In 1837, John L. Boswell, who had become the printer proprietor ofThe Connecticut Courant the previous year (until 1849), also started the publication ofThe Daily Courant.[10] In 1840, the title would be changed toThe Hartford Daily Courant, to finally becomeThe Hartford Courant in 1887. Based on the notion that the daily publication was an offshoot of the weeklyConnecticut Courant, the newspaper board adopted in 2018 the motto "Older than the nation" as its slogan.[11]
Other newspapers claim to be the oldest in the country.The New Hampshire Gazette, which started publication in 1756, trademarked the slogan of oldest paper in the nation after being revived as a small biweekly paper in 1989. Prior to 1989, the paper had all but disappeared into other publications for most of the 20th century, which makes the slogan doubtful. TheNew York Post also claims to be the oldest continuously published daily newspaper. However, even though thePost started daily publishing 35 years beforeThe Connecticut Courant did, theCourant existed as a weekly paper for nearly 40 years before theNew York Post was founded, making theCourant older. AlsoThe Providence Journal claims to be the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the United States: theJournal began daily publishing 28 years after theNew York Post, but some critics point at strikes at thePost in 1958 and 1978 as breaks in its continuity. Regardless,The Connecticut Courant existed as a weekly paper for nearly 70 years beforeThe Providence Journal was founded.[12]
In 1867,Joseph Roswell Hawley, a leadingRepublican politician and formergovernor of Connecticut, bought the newspaper, which he combined with thePress. Under his editorship, theCourant became the most influential newspaper in Connecticut and one of the leading Republican papers in the country.
An important figure in the history of theCourant isEmile Gauvreau, who became a reporter in 1916 and the managing editor in 1919. His energetic and often sensationalistic news style upsetCharles Clark, the owner and editor. Clark fired Gauvreau when the journalist refused to stop a series of stories about falsemedical diplomas. Gauvreau would become later on a major figure in theNew York Citytabloid wars of theRoaring Twenties as the firstmanaging editor of theNew York Evening Graphic and later managing editor of theNew York Mirror.[13]
Another prominent editor of theCourant in the 20th century isHerbert Brucker.[14]
TheCourant was purchased in 1979 byTimes Mirror, theLos Angeles Times' parent company, for $105.6 million.[15] The first years of out-of-town ownership are described by Andrew Kreig, a formerCourant reporter, in a book titledSpiked: How Chain Management Corrupted America's Oldest Newspaper.[16] One criticism expressed by Kreig is that the new owners were more interested in awards, and less interested in traditionalCourant devotion to exhaustive coverage of local news.
TheCourant won a 1992Pulitzer Prize for inquiring into problems with theHubble Space Telescope (a Connecticut company was involved in the construction), and it won a 1999 Pulitzer Prize in the Breaking News category for coverage of a 1998murder-suicide that took five lives atConnecticut Lottery headquarters. A series of articles about sexual abuse by the head of a worldwide Catholic order, published since February 1997, constituted the first denunciation ofMarciel Maciel known to a wider audience.[17][18]
In 2000, Times Mirror and theCourant became part of theTribune Company, one of the world's largest multimedia companies. By then theCourant had acquired theValley Advocate group of "alternative" weeklies started by two formerCourant staff members in 1973. Tribune also owned two local television stations:Fox affiliateWTIC-TV andThe CW affiliateWCCT-TV.
In 2005, TheCourant became the most recent American newspaper to win theSociety for News Design's World's Best Designed Newspaper award.[19] In 2006, the paper's investigation into mental health and suicides among Americans serving in the Iraq war was featured in the PBS documentary seriesExposé: America's Investigative Reports in an episode entitled "Question 7."
In late June 2006, the Tribune Co. announced thatCourant publisher Jack W. Davis Jr. would be replaced by Stephen D. Carver, vice president and general manager of Atlanta, Ga., TV station WATL. In March 2009, Tribune replaced Carver with Richard Graziano, who was given a dual role asCourant publisher and general manager of Tribune's two Hartford television stations.[citation needed] In May of the same year, Tribune announced that Jeff Levine, a newspaper executive with a background in marketing, would become "director of content" and that the editor or "print platform manager" of theCourant would report to Levine as would the news director of WTIC-TV. Shortly after that, theCourant's two highest ranking editors were let go.[20][21]
After 2010,Courant has offered early retirement and buyout packages to reduce staff as it continues to experience declines in advertising revenue. There have also been layoffs and reduction in pages. Newsroom staff peaked in 1994 at close to 400 staff, down to 175 staff by 2008, and 135 staff in 2009.[22]
Tribune Company brought frequent changes in theCourant's top leadership. On November 18, 2013, Tribune appointed Nancy Meyer as publisher, succeeding Rich Graziano who left to become president and general manager of WPIX-TV (PIX11) in New York City.
In 2014, theCourant purchased theReminderNews chain of weekly newspapers.[23] TheReminder name remained on the mastheads of all editions until November 2015, when the papers were redesigned and renamedCourant Community.[24]
On October 10, 2014, Tribune Company announced the appointment of Rick Daniels as publisher of theCourant, succeeding Nancy Meyer, who was promoted to publisher and CEO of theOrlando Sentinel.[25]
Andrew Julien was named the combined publisher and editor in March 2016, replacing Tom Wiley, who departed after two months.[26]
In 2018, theHartford Courant joined more than 300 newspapers in releasing editorials in response to President's Trump's anti-media rhetoric, a show of solidarity initiated byThe Boston Globe. The paper stated, "TheHartford Courant joins newspapers from around the country today to reaffirm that the press is not the enemy of the American people."[27][28]
In October 2020, theCourant announced that it would be discontinuing printing the paper in Hartford and outsourcing future printing to theSpringfield Republican in Massachusetts.[29]
In December 2020,Tribune Publishing announced that it would be closing theCourant's Broad Street newsroom by the end of the year with no current plans to open another.[30] On its website as of 2023, theCourant lists its mailing address as 100 Pearl Street in Hartford.[31]
In January 2024, it was announcedCourant Community newspapers was to cease publication on January 18.[24]
Journalist Denis Edward Horgan suggest that the title could derive from Dutchkrant.[32] The word, alternatively spelledcourante,[33] would be a contraction of Dutchcourante nouvellen, from Frenchnouvelles courantes, indicating current news articles.[34] However, this Gallicism was already current in the English world and more specifically in the early modern newspaper industry. A case in point is theNew-England Courant (Boston), founded by James Franklin in 1721.[35]
Nancy Tracy of theHartford Courant was a 1984 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Feature Writing for her moving depiction of Meg Casey, a victim of premature aging.[36]
Robert S. Capers and Eric Lipton of theHartford Courant won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism for their series on how a flawed mirror built at Connecticut's Perkin-Elmer Corporation immobilized theHubble Space Telescope.[37][38]
TheHartford Courant Staff won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of a shooting rampage in which a state lottery employee killed four supervisors then himself.[39][40]
Reporters Mike McIntire and Jack Dolan of theHartford Courant were 2001 Pulitzer Prize Finalists in Investigative Reporting for their work in revealing the mistakes of practicing doctors who have faced disciplinary action.[41]
Photojournalist Brad Clift was a 2003 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Feature Photography for his photo series "Heroin Town", which depicted heroin use inWillimantic.[42]
Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman of theHartford Courant were 2007 Pulitzer Prize Finalists in Investigative Reporting for their in-depth reporting on suicide rates among American soldiers in Iraq which led to congressional and military action addressing the issues raised in the series.[43]
TheHartford Courant staff was a 2013 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for its comprehensive and compassionate coverage of theSandy Hook Elementary School shooting.[44][45] The paper was given exclusive access originally to the investigative files collected by the FBI on the shooter's life growing up.
The paper endorsedGeorge W. Bush in both the2000 and the2004 Presidential elections.[46][47]
In the 2012 Presidential Election, theCourant endorsedPresident Barack Obama for a second term over RepublicanMitt Romney.[48]
TheCourant weighed in on the contentious and antagonistic 2016 presidential election, endorsing DemocratHillary Clinton over Republican candidateDonald Trump.[49]
In August 2018 theCourant endorsedNed Lamont in the Democratic primary as the only "credible" choice compared to rivalJoe Ganim.[50] TheCourant went on to endorse independent candidateOz Griebel in the general election.[51]
For the 2020 Presidential Election, theCourant weighed in, endorsing DemocratJoe Biden over Republican candidateDonald Trump. TheCourant took a stronger stance in its 2020 endorsement against Trump than it did in 2016, arguing that a vote for Trump was a vote for racism.[52]
In August 2009, theCourant attracted controversy over its firing of George Gombossy, a 40-year veteran of the paper and its consumer advocate at the time. Gombossy charged that theCourant hadspiked an article he had written about an ongoing investigation by theConnecticut attorney general accusingSleepy's (a major advertiser in the paper) of selling used and bedbug-infested mattresses as new.[53][54][55]
Gombossy's lawsuit against theCourant was thrown out by aConnecticut Superior Court judge in July 2010. In his decision, Judge Marshall K. Berger Jr. remarked that newspaper owners and editors have a "paramount" right to "control [the] content of their papers," further observing that in his role at theCourant, Gombossy had "no constitutional right to publish anything."[56]
However, Gombossy's attorneys filed a second complaint, and Judge Berger reinstated the complaint. The case headed to trial in the fall of 2011. "In late 2011 the suit was resolved," according to Gombossy's CTWatchdog website.[57]
In September 2009 theCourant's publisher, Richard Graziano, publicly apologized as the newspaper accepted a plagiarism charge. Competitors had accused theCourant of taking its content without permission and refusing to give proper credit.[58][59]
In 2018, theHartford Courant beganbanning users of the internet in theEuropean Union from accessing its website because of its absence ofdata protection compliance.[60][61][62]
