 The July 27, 2005 front page of The Albuquerque Tribune | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | E. W. Scripps Company |
| Publisher | Albuquerque Publishing Company |
| Editor | Phill Casaus |
| Founded | 1922 |
| Ceased publication | February 23, 2008[1] |
| Headquarters | 7777 Jefferson NE Albuquerque, New Mexico 87109  United States |
| Circulation | 10,000 (when closure was announced)[1] |
| ISSN | 1097-2048 |
| Website | abqtrib.com |
The Albuquerque Tribune was an afternoon newspaper inAlbuquerque, New Mexico, founded in 1922 byCarlton Cole Magee asMagee's Independent.[2] It was published in the afternoon and evening Monday through Saturday.
Scott Ware served as editor from 1995 to 2001.[3] Other journalists who worked at the Tribune include Ollie Reed Jr.,[4] Joline Gutierrez Krueger,[5] and Terri Burke,[6] who later served as the executive director of the Texas ACLU.[7]
On February 20, 2008,E. W. Scripps Company announced that theTribune would close, effective February 23, 2008.[1] The closure followed a seven-month effort by the company to sell the paper, which had declined in circulation from 42,000 in 1988 to about 10,000 in 2008.[1] GovernorBill Richardson ofNew Mexico declared the paper's last day "Albuquerque Tribune Day" in his state, to "celebrate theTribune's long and proud history and its honorable service to the state."[8]
Eileen Welsome ofThe Albuquerque Tribune won thePulitzer Prize for National Reportingin 1994 for her series entitled "The Plutonium Experiment", a series abouthuman radiation experiments that took place at theWalter E. Fernald State School of Massachusetts, among other locations.
The paper's logo and the logo of the entire Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, depicting a lighthouse, was inspired by founder Magee's original slogan: "Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way";[1] the slogan had been adopted fromDante.
On February 20, 1933,The Albuquerque Tribune formed the nation's firstjoint operating agreement (JOA), entitled the "Albuquerque Plan," with theAlbuquerque Journal in response to theGreat Depression of 1929. The JOA established theAlbuquerque Publishing Company and merged theAlbuquerque Evening Journal with theTribune (which at this point changed its name from theNew Mexico State Tribune toThe Albuquerque Tribune.)
The Albuquerque Tribune andAlbuquerque Journal merged presses, advertising and circulation while remaining as separate editorial entities. As part of the joint operating agreement, theTribune was to be a local newspaper only, focusing on issues in the Albuquerque metropolitan area.
Although the JOA ended when Scripps shut down the newspaper, Scripps retained its stake (about 40%) in Albuquerque Publishing Company, giving Scripps a corresponding share in any futureAlbuquerque Journal profits.[9] Scripps had not offered to sell its share in the JOA when it attempted to sell the paper, something thatEditor & Publisher noted was another factor in Scripps' inability to find a buyer for theTribune.[9]