 | |
| Type | Daily afternoonnewspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owners |
|
| Founder | Captain Joseph Borrows Tate |
| Editor | Jim Bellows (1975–1978) |
| Staff writers | Mary McGrory,Clifford K. Berryman |
| Founded | December 16, 1852; 173 years ago (1852-12-16) |
| Ceased publication | August 7, 1981; 44 years ago (1981-08-07) |
| Political alignment | Conservative |
| Headquarters | 1101Pennsylvania Avenue, NW,Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| City | Washington, D.C. |
| Country | United States |
The Washington Star, previously known as theWashington Star-News and theWashingtonEvening Star, was a daily afternoon newspaper published inWashington, D.C., between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as theSunday Star.[1] The paper was renamed several times before becomingWashington Star by the late 1970s.
For most of the time it was publishing,The Washington Star was the city'snewspaper of record. It provided a longtime home to columnistMary McGrory (1918-2004) and to cartoonistClifford K. Berryman (1869-1949). On August 7, 1981, after 128 years,The Washington Star ceased publication and filed forbankruptcy. In the bankruptcy sale,The Washington Post purchased the land and buildings owned byThe Washington Star, including its printing-presses.
The Washington Star was founded on December 16, 1852, by Captain Joseph Borrows Tate. It was originally headquartered on "Newspaper Row" onPennsylvania Avenue inWashington, D.C. Tate initially named the paperThe Daily Evening Star.
In 1853,Texas surveyor and newspaper entrepreneurWilliam Douglas Wallach purchased the paper, and in 1854 shortened the name toThe Evening Star and introducedThe Sunday Star edition. As the sole owner of the paper for 14 years, Wallach built up the paper by capitalizing on reporting of theAmerican Civil War, among other things. In 1867, a three-man consortium ofCrosby Stuart Noyes,Samuel H. Kauffmann and George W. Adams acquired the paper, with each of the investors putting up $33,333.33. The Noyes-Kauffmann-Adams interests would own the paper for the next four generations.[2]
In 1907, subsequentPulitzer Prize winning cartoonistClifford K. Berryman joined theStar. Berryman was most famous for his 1902 cartoon of PresidentTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," which spurred the creation of theteddy bear.[3] During his career, Berryman drew thousands of cartoons commenting on American Presidents and politics. Presidential figures included former Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Harry S. Truman. The cartoons satirized both Democrats and Republicans and covered topics such as drought, farm relief, andfood prices; representation of the District of Columbia in Congress; labor strikes and legislation; campaigning and elections; political patronage; European coronations; theAmerica's Cup; and the atomic bomb. Berryman's career continued at theStar until he collapsed on the lobby floor one morning in 1949 and died shortly after of a heart ailment.[3]
The next major change to the newspaper came in 1938, when the three owning families diversified their interests. On May 1, theStar purchased the M. A. Leese Radio Corporation and acquired Washington's oldestradio station,WMAL, in the process. Renamed the Evening Star Broadcasting Company, the 1938 acquisition would figure later in the 1981 demise of the newspaper.
TheStar's influence and circulation peaked in the 1950s; it constructed a new printing plant inSoutheast Washington capable of printing millions of copies, but found itself unable to cope with changing times. Nearly all top editorial and business staff jobs were held by members of the owning families, including a Kauffmann general manager who had gained a reputation foranti-Semitism, driving away advertisers. Suburbanization and competition with television news were other factors for declining circulation and staffing;Carl Bernstein reflected in his 2021 memoir that theStar "couldn't get the paper out to the newer postwar suburbs until late in the afternoon" because "delivery trucks got tied up in rush hour traffic."[4]
Meanwhile,The Washington Post acquired and merged with its morning rival, theWashington Times-Herald, in 1954 and steadily drew readers and advertisers away from the fallingStar. By the 1960s, thePost was Washington's leading newspaper.
The Star expanded to broadcasting by purchasing two more stations,WLVA-AM-TV inLynchburg in 1965; andWCIV inCharleston in 1966.[5][6]
In 1972, theStar purchased and absorbed one of Washington's few remaining competing newspapers,The Washington Daily News. For a short period of time after the merger, both"The Evening Star" and"The Washington Daily News" mastheads appeared on the front page. The paper soon was retitled"Washington Star News" and finally,"The Washington Star" by the late 1970s.
In 1973, theStar was targeted for clandestine purchase by interests close to theSouth AfricanApartheid government in itspropaganda war, in what became known as theMuldergate Scandal. TheStar, whose editorial policy had always been conservative, was seen as favorable to South Africa at the time. In 1974, pro-apartheid Michigan newspaper publisherJohn P. McGoff attempted to purchaseThe Washington Star for $25 million, but he and his family received death threats, and the sale did not go through.[7]
In early 1975, the Noyes-Kauffmann-Adams group sold its interests in the paper toJoe Allbritton, a Texas multimillionaire who was known as a corporate turnaround artist. Allbritton, who also ownedRiggs Bank, then the most prestigious bank in the capital, planned to use profits from WMAL-AM-FM-TV to shore up the newspaper's finances. TheFederal Communications Commission stymied him with rules onmedia cross-ownership, however. The FCC had recently banned common ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets, while grandfathering existing clusters. Due to the manner in which Allbritton's takeover was structured, the FCC considered it to be an ownership change, and stripped the WMAL stations of their grandfathered protection. Allbritton sold off all of the Star Company's radio stations in 1977, and channel 7 was renamedWJLA-TV.
On October 1, 1975, press operators at thePost went onstrike, severely damaging all printing presses before leaving the building. Allbritton would not assistKatharine Graham, the owner of thePost, in any way, refusing to print his rival's papers on theStar's presses, since that likely would have caused theStar to be struck by the press operators as well. Allbritton also had major disagreements with editorJim Bellows over editorial policy; Bellows left theStar for theLos Angeles Herald-Examiner. Unable to make theStar profitable, Allbritton explored other options, including ajoint operating agreement with thePost.
On February 2, 1978, Allbritton sold theStar toTime Inc. for $20 million.[8] Their flagship magazine,Time, was the arch-rival toNewsweek, whichThe Washington Post Company had owned since 1961. Time Inc.'s president,James R. Shepley, convincedTime's board of directors that owning a daily newspaper in the national capital would bring a unique sense of prestige and political access.[9] The paper's labor unions agreed to work concessions that Shepley demanded.[9]
An effort to draw readers with localized special "zonal" metro news sections, however, did little to help circulation. TheStar lacked the resources to produce the sort of ultra-local coverage zonal editions demanded and ended up running many of the same regional stories in all of its local sections. An economic downturn resulted in monthly losses of over $1 million. Overall, theStar lost some $85 million following the acquisition before Time's board decided to give up.[9] On August 7, 1981, after 128 years,The Washington Star ceased publication. In the bankruptcy sale, thePost purchased the land and buildings owned by theStar, including its printing presses.
Many of the people who worked for theStar went to work for the newly formedWashington Times, which began operations in May 1982, almost a year after theStar went out of business.[10]
Writers who worked at theStar in its last days includedMichael Isikoff,Howard Kurtz,Fred Hiatt,Jane Mayer, Chris Hanson,Jeremiah O'Leary, Chuck Conconi,Crispin Sartwell,Maureen Dowd, novelist Randy Sue Coburn,Michael DeMond Davis, Lance Gay,Jules Witcover,Jack Germond, Judy Bachrach,Lyle Denniston,Fred Barnes,Gloria Borger, Kate Sylvester, andMary McGrory. The paper's staff also included editorial cartoonistPat Oliphant from 1976 to 1981.
| |
| Industry | Print syndication |
|---|---|
| Founded | May 1965; 60 years ago (1965-05) |
| Defunct | May 1979; 46 years ago (1979-05) |
| Fate | acquired byUniversal Press Syndicate |
| Headquarters | 444 Madison Avenue,, |
Key people | Harry E. Elmlark[11] |
| Services | Columns, comic strips |
| Owner | The Washington Star Company (1965–1978) Time Inc. (1978–1979) |
The Washington Star Syndicate operated from 1965 to 1979. The newspaper had sporadicallysyndicated material over the years — for instance, Gibson "Gib" Crockett, aWashington Star editorial cartoonist, was syndicated from 1947 to 1967 — but didn't become official until May 1965, when it purchased the remainingcomic strips,columns, and features of theGeorge Matthew Adams Service (Adams had died in 1962).[11]
The Washington Star Syndicate distributed the columns ofJames Beard,William F. Buckley Jr.,James J. Kilpatrick, andMary McGrory, among others.[12] It began by syndicating a few strips — including Edwina Dumm's stripsAlec the Great andCap Stubbs and Tippie — it had inherited from the Adams Service; one successful strip the syndicate launched wasMorrie Brickman'sThe Small Society, which was published in over 300 papers, including 35 foreign publications.[13] Otherwise, from about 1971 onward, the syndicate no longer distributed comic strips.[citation needed]
In February 1978, the Washington Star Syndicate was sold (along with its parent company) toTime Inc.[8] In May 1979, theUniversal Press Syndicate acquired the Star Syndicate from the remaining assets of the Washington Star Company.[12] As a result of this merger, beginning in June 1979, popular existing Universal Press strips likeDoonesbury,Cathy, andTank McNamara left the pages ofThe Washington Post and began appearing inThe Washington Star.[14] (When theStar folded in August 1981, those strips returned to thePost.)
Daily Evening Star
Evening Star andThe Sunday Star
The Morning Star
The Washington Daily News
The Evening Star and the Washington Daily News
The Washington Star
