 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
 Front page of theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | USA Today Co. |
| Publisher | Andy Fisher |
| Founded |
|
| Circulation | 30,887 average print circulation[1] 60,271 digital subscribers.[2] |
| ISSN | 1082-8850 |
| OCLC number | 55506548 |
| Website | jsonline.com |
TheMilwaukee Journal Sentinel is a daily morningbroadsheet printed inMilwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primarynewspaper and also the largest newspaper in the state ofWisconsin, where it is widely read. It was purchased by theGannett Company in 2016.[3]
In early 2003, theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel began printing at a new facility inWest Milwaukee. In September 2006, theJournal Sentinel announced it had "signed a five-year agreement to print the national edition ofUSA Today for distribution in the northern and western suburbs of Chicago and the eastern half of Wisconsin".[4]
TheMilwaukee Sentinel was founded on June 27, 1837, in response to disparaging statements made about the east side of town byByron Kilbourn's westside partisan newspaper, theMilwaukee Advertiser, during the city's "bridge wars", a period when the two sides of town fought for dominance. A co-founder of Milwaukee,Solomon Juneau, provided the starting funds for editor John O'Rourke, a former office assistant at theAdvertiser, to start the paper.[5]
On Juneau's request, O'Rourke's associate,Harrison Reed, remained to take over theSentinel's operations on behalf of Democratic Party politicianJames Duane Doty.[6] Reed continued the struggle to keep the paper ahead of its debts, often printing pleas to his advertisers and subscribers to pay their bills any way they could. Meanwhile, the establishment of theWhig party in the territory thrust theSentinel into partisan politics. In 1840 Reed was assaulted by individuals whom theSentinel charged were hired by Democratic GovernorHenry Dodge.[7] When Doty backedWilliam Henry Harrison, theSentinel endorsed Harrison for president in the1840 election.[6]
Starr guarded theSentinel's position as the sole Whig organ in Milwaukee. Heavily in debt, he secured the partnership of David M. Keeler, who paid off the paper's creditors. Keeler took on partner John S. Fillmore (nephew of U.S. presidentMillard Fillmore) and succeeded in ousting Starr, who kept publishing his own version of theSentinel. Keeler and Fillmore trumped his efforts by turning theirSentinel into a daily on December 9, 1844, while still publishing a weekly edition. The paper finally began to prosper and establish itself as a major political force in the nascent state of Wisconsin. Having accomplished his goal of establishing the first daily paper in the territory, Keeler retired two months later, but not before opening a public reading room of the nation's newspapers, the origin ofMilwaukee's public library system. Fillmore employed a succession of editors, includingJason Downer, later a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, andIncrease A. Lapham, a Midwestern naturalist who later helped establish theNational Weather Service.[5]
After running through six editors in eight years, Fillmore sought a more stable editorial foundation and went east to confer withThurlow Weed, editor of theAlbany Evening Journal and powerful Whig political boss of New York. Weed recommended his associate editor and protégé, Rufus King. King was a native of New York City, a graduate ofWest Point, a brevet lieutenant, the son of the president ofColumbia College and the grandson ofU.S. Constitution signerRufus King. In June 1845 King came to Milwaukee and became theSentinel's editor three months later.[8]
The paper provided thorough coverage of Wisconsin's constitutional convention, held inMadison in 1846. When the adopted constitution fell short of Whig expectations, theSentinel was instrumental in encouraging its rejection by territorial voters on April 6, 1847. TheSentinel launched a German-language paper,Der Volksfreund, to bring the city's large population of German immigrants to the Whig cause. Gen. King himself was a delegate to Wisconsin's second constitutional convention. He was also appointed head of the Milwaukee militia and sat on theUniversity of Wisconsin's board of regents, as well as being the first superintendent ofMilwaukee public schools. In the wake of thePanic of 1857 King sold the paper to T.D. Jermain and H.H. Brightman, but remained editor, covering the state legislative sessions of 1859–1861 himself.[5]
In 1848, theSentinel praised theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, a treaty that ended theMexican–American War, commenting: "Peace upon almost any terms will be joyfully welcomed by the American People. They have long since tired of the war."[9]
TheSentinel prospered during the Civil War, sometimes printing five editions of the paper in a day. Though much of the war news was copied from Chicago papers, theSentinel did dispatch a war correspondent for over half a year. The war also resulted in a shortage of skilled printers, so in 1863 theSentinel began hiring and training "female compositors" to typeset the paper, albeit in another building away from the men. This resulted in members of the Milwaukee Typographical Union leaving their jobs, but the war had already depleted their ranks to such a degree that the union later temporarily disbanded.[10] Frustrated by the lack of skilled help, editorC. Latham Sholes tried building a typesetting machine, but failed. After becoming comptroller for the city a few years later, he invented the modern typewriter. After the war ended circulation fell off and the number of editions was kept to a minimum.[5]
A supporter of theLiberal Republicans, who opposed PresidentUlysses S. Grant, Thomson was ousted from the paper after Carpenter's former law partner Newton S. Murphey bought theSentinel in 1874 with other pro-Grant Republicans, including Carpenter, who had failed to be re-elected.[11] After Murphey loaned Carpenter $20,000 to also become a stakeholder in the paper, Carpenter hired A. C. Botkin as editor, formerly of theChicago Times, to replace Thomson. TheSentinel was soon perceived as Carpenter's "personal mouthpiece" and an organ of the state Republican central committee.[12] After committee chairmanElisha W. Keyes blocked Carpenter from becoming a delegate to the national Republican convention in 1876, the paper began running fierce editorials denouncing Keyes. TheSentinel later endorsed Carpenter over Keyes as senator in the 1878 election.[13]
Disappointed in the paper's weak defense of unregulatedcorporations, a new group of stalwart Republicans purchased the old DemocraticMilwaukee News in 1880 and resurrected it as theRepublican and News.Horace Rublee, a former editor of theWisconsin State Journal and who had been the chairman of thestate Republican party, was hired as editor-in-chief. Failing to put theSentinel out of business, the Republicans bought the paper outright and issued it as theRepublican-Sentinel. The next year the word Republican was dropped, but the paper remained a major force in the state's Republican party.[5] This troubled managing editorLucius W. Nieman, who had covered the state capitol for theSentinel and had seen the control the powerful monied interests had over state government. When a Democrat was elected to Congress from a die-hard Republican county, theSentinel's editor refused to print the fact. This led Nieman to resign and join the fledglingMilwaukee Journal. TheJournal first received acclaim when Nieman's coverage of a deadly hotel fire revealed it to be a firetrap, but theSentinel defended the hotel's management, which included aSentinel stockholder.[14]
HistorianFrederick Jackson Turner was theSentinel's Madison correspondent for a year, beginning in April 1884, while he finished his senior year at theUniversity of Wisconsin. He covered various aspects of life in Madison, from campus news to the state legislature. He delivered the scoop that university regent and state political bossElisha W. Keyes wished to remove university presidentJohn Bascom for political reasons and it was Turner's reports that resulted in a backlash of support for the president. Bascom had earlier offered Turner a position teaching elocution at the university that he turned down in favor of working for theSentinel for nine more months. He left the paper after Republicans appointed him as the transcribing clerk to Wisconsin's state senate before later going on to teach history.[15]
In 1892–1893 theSentinel moved temporarily from its home on Mason Street so that the old building could be torn down and a new, state-of-the-art structure could be erected in its place.[5]
With the dawning of theProgressive Era during the 1890s theSentinel began to moderate its views, often echoing calls for political reform. After thePanic of 1893 a private utility monopoly run by stalwart Republican party bossesCharles F. Pfister andHenry C. Payne,The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company (TMER&L), revoked commuter passes and raised utility rates during the depression. TheSentinel joined in the chorus of indignation that resounded from Milwaukee and beyond, particularly during 1899 when Pfister and Payne succeeded, by means of bribery, to push through a 35-year contract with the city. On December 29 Pfister and Payne sued theSentinel for libel, to which the paper replied that it had fallen prey to "probably the most formidable and influential combination of selfish interests ever found in the city of Milwaukee."[16]
Rather than going to trial and having his business practices revealed, Pfister bought theSentinel outright on February 18, 1901, paying an immense sum to buy up a majority of its stock. After the death of his publisher, Lansing Warren, that summer Pfister assumed publishing duties, immersing himself in the paper's operations and directing political coverage. Owning theSentinel expanded his conservative influence from the convention backrooms to the pages of the largest daily paper in Wisconsin. TheSentinel immediately opposed the newly elected Governor La Follette. During La Follete's successful re-election campaign in 1902, Pfister's political power was diminished after it had been revealed that he had secretly purchased the editorial pages of some 300 of the state's newspapers.[17]
A majority stake was purchased by theHearst Corporation in 1924. Operations of theSentinel were joined to Hearst's papers, the afternoonWisconsin News and the morningMilwaukee Telegram; the latter being merged with theSentinel as theMilwaukee Sentinel & Telegram. TheWisconsin News entered into a lease arrangement with the School of Engineering for radio station WSOE on November 15, 1927. The lease was for a minimum of three years. To reflect the new arrangement, theWisconsin News changed the call letters of WSOE toWISN on January 23, 1928. The station was sold to theWisconsin News in November 1930.[18] Hearst's associate Paul Block acquired Pfister's remaining stake of theSentinel in 1929. TheNews closed in 1939, being consolidated with theSentinel as a single morning paper. In 1955 Hearst purchased television station WTVW and changed the call letters toWISN-TV.[19]
The Milwaukee Journal began asThe Daily Journal in 1882.Edna Ferber, later a famed writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, was aMilwaukee Journal reporter for nearly four years, from approximately 1903 to 1907.
TheJournal followed theSentinel into broadcasting. TheJournal purchased radio station WKAF in 1927, changing its call letters toWTMJ.[20] It launched an experimental FM station, W9XAO, in 1940,[21] which was licensed as a commercial station in 1941,[22] originally as W55M, and later becoming WMFM[23] andWTMJ-FM.[21] This station was shut down in 1950.[24] In 1959 a new WTMJ-FM was licensed, which later became WKTI-FM, WLWK-FM, andWKTI.WTMJ-TV, Wisconsin's first television station, went on the air in 1947.[25]
In January 1995, faced with rising costs of newsprint and a decliningJournal circulation, Journal Communications decided to merge the two publications.[26][27] The company announced that they expected to cut the equivalent of between 500 and 550 full-time jobs.[26] The final issue of theJournal was published on the evening of March 31, 1995,[28] and the final issue of theSentinel was published on the morning of April 1, 1995.[29] The first issue of the merged publication was published on April 2, 1995.[30]
As of mid-2012, theJournal Sentinel had the 31st-largest circulation among all major U.S. newspapers, with circulation of 207,000 for the daily edition and just under 338,000 for the Sunday edition.[31]
On April 8, 2016, decades of local ownership for both papers ended whenJournal Media Group was acquired by the Gannett Company for $280 million.[3] Gannett owns most of the daily newspapers in the central and eastern parts of Wisconsin (eleven in all),[32] including theGreen Bay Press-Gazette and Appleton'sThe Post-Crescent. TheJournal Sentinel has been integrated into the company's "USA Today Network Wisconsin".[33] TheJournal Sentinel also collaborates with thePress-Gazette for Packers coverage, and adapted to Gannett standards, including newspaper layout, website and apps, in August 2016.[34]
In the spring of 2018, theJournal Sentinel press facility began to print all of Gannett's state papers (it already printedThe Sheboygan Press andUSA Today) replacing the company's Appleton facility.[35] By 2021, it was reported that about 90% ofJournal Sentinel subscriptions were for its print edition despite a years-long push to increase the number of digital subscribers.[36]
In April 2024, the newspaper launched a redesigned Sunday edition.[37]
The Milwaukee Journal and theMilwaukee Journal Sentinel have receivedPulitzer Prizes:
In 1934, cartoonistRoss A. Lewis won for his cartoon on labor-industry violence, "Sure, I'll Work for Both Sides".[38]
In 1966, the series "Pollution: The Spreading Menace" garnered the award for public service.[39]
In 1977,Margo Huston became the first female staff member ofThe Milwaukee Journal to win a Pulitzer Prize. She won the award in the category of best general reporting for a series of articles on the elderly and the process of aging.[40]
In 2008, local government reporterDavid Umhoefer was awarded the 2008Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for his investigation of theMilwaukee County pension system.[41]
In 2010, reporter Raquel Rutledge was awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for her investigations and stories on abuses in a state-run child care system.[42]
In 2011, Mark Johnson, Kathleen Gallagher, Gary Porter, Lou Saldivar, and Alison Sherwood were awarded thePulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for their "lucid examination of an epic effort to use genetic technology to save a 4-year-old boy imperiled by a mysterious disease, told with words, graphics, videos and other images."[43]
In 1965 the paper'swomen's section won thePenney-Missouri Award for General Excellence.[44]
In 2008, Google published the newspaper's archives as part of an initiative to digitize historical newspapers. Though the initiative ended in 2011, the archives remain accessible. The Milwaukee digitization used microfilm that had been scanned forProQuest's database. At theJournal Sentinel's request, theMilwaukee Public Library loaned decades of missing microfilm volumes to complete the digitization. When Google's project ended, the newspaper began the process of creating its own archive via its relationship withNewsbank.[45]
Newsbank unsuccessfully attempted to sellJournal Sentinel digital archive access to the Milwaukee Public Library, which could not afford their asking price. The Library already subscribed to Newsbank's obituary and recentJournal Sentinel articles, as well as other proprietary databases with annual subscriptions costing less than $100,000. In May 2014, Newsbank suggested several purchase options, one of which was $1.5 million, which would have consumed nearly all of the library's $1.7 million materials budget. The newspaper changed ownership to Gannett in April and by August had requested that Google remove free public access to the archives, leaving a gap in coverage.[45] Google Newspapers access was restored in December 2017,[46] but digital access continued to be sporadic over the next several years.[47]
After today, after 112 years and 136 days, The Journal will exist no more.
the next time you see us, we'll have yet another nameplate: the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Welcome to the first Sunday edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Today and tomorrow, when our first weekday edition hits the streets, you'll get your first look at the newest paper in the United States
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
