Reprinted with permission
The Daily Journal is celebrating its 150th year anniversary this year and I am excited. Here is a quick history of the Journal. It was founded in 1873 by A. J. Underwood, whose family published the newspaper until the mid-1980’s when it was purchased by Thomson Newspapers. In December 1992 it was sold to Boone Newspapers Incorporated who operated it until July 2019 when it was purchased by Wick Communications. If you are not familiar with Wick Communications, we are a family-owned community media company with newspapers, websites, magazines and specialty publications in 11 states. The home office is in Sierra Vista, Arizona and Wick publishes newspapers in Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Minnesota and Washington.
The fact that the Daily Journal is now 150 years old is amazing. To help put this into perspective I took a look back at the year 1873 and according to onthisday.com found that Ulysses S. Grant was sworn in for his second term as President of the United States and Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York, began production of the first practical typewriter. Imagine that, the Journal was founded the same year as the first practical typewriter.
Newspapers have always had a long history in the communities they serve and the Daily Journal is no different. In fact, newspapers are almost always used by researchers to trace genealogy through obituaries and other news stories of the day. Newspaper clippings are a staple for scrap books to help remember and showcase certain events etc. But more importantly the newspaper is highly regarded as a public record. One only has to view a bound book of newspapers from the past to quickly realize it’s like a walk down memory lane. Page after page are loaded with news and events from that time period and you are literally holding/reading a piece of history.
In short, newspapers tell the tales of our communities, the struggles and duties, the joys and triumphs. We bring news that matters and help readers see the world from a different perspective. So as we begin our 150th year let us celebrate and remember the importance of the press and local journalism. May it forever progress.
Ken Harty is publisher of The Daily Journal.
