The Cincinnati Enquirer
Encyclopedia
The Cincinnati Enquirer, a daily morning newspaper
, is the highest-circulation print publication in Greater Cincinnati (Ohio
) and Northern Kentucky
. (The Enquirer publishes a Northern Kentucky edition under the title The Kentucky Enquirer with a front section and remade Local section. The front page is remade from the Ohio edition, although it may contain similar elements.) A Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper, The Enquirer had a joint operating agreement (JOA) with the afternoon daily, The Cincinnati Post
, and handled all of the business functions of both newspapers. Gannett Co. Inc. notified E. W. Scripps Company
, publisher of The Post, in 2004 that they will not renew the JOA again. The Post ceased publishing on December 31, 2007.
The Enquirer publishes a variety of print and electronic media, including separate editions for Ohio and Kentucky, 17 Community Press weekly newspapers, 10 Community Recorder weekly newspapers, Design Magazine, Inspire Magazine, OurTown magazine, the Cincinnati.Com network of Web sites, and free-distribution advertising publications in the employment, automotive, real estate, rental, health care and shopping segments. Cincinnati.Com is The Enquirer's flagship electronic product, and encompasses 50 local and national information and advertising Web products.
The first known reference to Chicago
as "The Windy City" appeared in the Enquirer May 9, 1876.
to 1881, The Enquirer was owned by Washington McLean
, a Copperhead
whose editorial policies led to the suppression of the paper by the United States government during the Civil War
. After the war, McLean pursued an anti-Republican
stance. One of his star writers was Lafcadio Hearn
, who wrote for the paper from 1872 to 1875. James W. Faulkner
started was a newspaperman from the Enquirer who became the political correspondent for the paper covering the Ohio State Legislature and Statehouse from 1887 until his death. The Faulkner Letter was a well-known column often carried in regional newspapers. From 1881 to his death in 1916, it was run by his son, John Roll McLean
. Having little faith in his only child, Ned, John Roll McLean put the Enquirer and another paper he owned, The Washington Post, in trust with a Washington, D.C.
bank as trustee
. Ned successfully broke the trust regarding The Post, an action that led to its bankruptcy
and eventual sale to Eugene Meyer
in 1933. The Enquirer, however, continued to be held in trust until 1952.
During the 1930s and 1940s The Enquirer was widely regarded among newspapers for its innovative and distinctive typography
.
In 1952, the bank decided to sell to Charles Phelps Taft
, the owner of the Cincinnati Times-Star and a member of the presidential Taft family, but the employees of the paper pooled their assets and obtained loans to outbid him. However, they lacked sufficient capital and managerial expertise to run the paper. Beset by financial problems and internal strife, the paper was sold to The E. W. Scripps Company in 1956, the owner of The Cincinnati Post. Scripps held the paper until 1968 when it was forced to sell after the government successfully brought an anti-trust action. American Financial, a company controlled by Cincinnati millionaire Carl Lindner
bought the paper, selling it to another Lindner company, Combined Communications, in 1969. Combined Communications, based in Phoenix
, merged with Gannett in 1979.
In 1977, the paper entered into a joint operating agreement with the other daily in Cincinnati, the afternoon Cincinnati Post. Under the agreement, The Enquirer handled all business functions of both papers, including printing, distribution, and selling advertising. In January 2004, The Enquirer informed the Post it would not be renewing the agreement upon its expiration December 31, 2007. This led to the closure of the Post, which left The Enquirer as the only daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, a region that is home to more than 30 local weekly newspapers and several magazines and tabloids.
on this property; its final details were finished in 1928. The newspaper moved to its present Elm Street headquarters in 1992.
edition containing most of the local content produced by its reporters, photographers, and columnists. The Enquirer also launched GoCinci.Net, an Internet Service Provider
and free World Wide Web
site
that presented content from The Enquirer and the Post. In August 1998, The Enquirer renamed its Web site Cincinnati.com. In May 2002, Cincinnati.com was expanded to represent local news competitor WCPO-TV
, owned by the E.W. Scripps Company.
In May 2003, Gannett Co. replaced Harry Whipple, who had been president and publisher for 11 years. The new publisher, Margaret E. Buchanan, is a Cincinnati native who was previously publisher of the Idaho Statesman
in Boise, Idaho
. She is the newspaper's first woman publisher. Also in 2003, Tom Callinan, a veteran Gannett editor whose previous top positions included newspapers in Phoenix and Rochester, N.Y., became editor of the Enquirer.
In October 2003 The Enquirer began publishing and distributing CiN Weekly, a free lifestyle magazine aimed at younger readers.
In October 2005 The Enquirer launched NKY.com, a Web site covering news from the Northern Kentucky counties of Boone, Campbell and Kenton. This was one of the first newspaper-published Web sites to make extensive use of user-created content, featured prominently on its 38 community pages.
In April 2006, The Enquirer was cited by The Associated Press with the news cooperative's General Excellence Award, naming The Enquirer as the best major daily newspaper in Ohio. Earlier that year, parent Gannett Co. named The Enquirer the most improved of the more than 100 newspapers in the chain.
In August 2006, Cincinnati.Com launched 186 community pages for Ohio and Indiana towns and neighborhoods. Cincinnati.Com began soliciting and publishing stories and articles from the public. Readers-submitted content also is extensively featured in Your HomeTown Enquirer, six zoned twice-weekly local news sections published on Thursday and Saturday in Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont counties.
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
, is the highest-circulation print publication in Greater Cincinnati (Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
) and Northern Kentucky
Northern Kentucky
Northern Kentucky is the name often given to the northernmost counties in Kentucky...
. (The Enquirer publishes a Northern Kentucky edition under the title The Kentucky Enquirer with a front section and remade Local section. The front page is remade from the Ohio edition, although it may contain similar elements.) A Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper, The Enquirer had a joint operating agreement (JOA) with the afternoon daily, The Cincinnati Post
The Cincinnati Post
The Cincinnati Post is a discontinued afternoon daily newspaper that was published in Cincinnati, Ohio. Distributed in Northern Kentucky as The Kentucky Post, it was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. Since the 1980s, its editorial stance was usually conservative. The Post published its final...
, and handled all of the business functions of both newspapers. Gannett Co. Inc. notified E. W. Scripps Company
E. W. Scripps Company
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American media conglomerate founded by Edward W. Scripps on November 2, 1878. The company is headquartered inside the Scripps Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its corporate motto is "Give light and the people will find their own way."On October 16, 2007, the company...
, publisher of The Post, in 2004 that they will not renew the JOA again. The Post ceased publishing on December 31, 2007.
The Enquirer publishes a variety of print and electronic media, including separate editions for Ohio and Kentucky, 17 Community Press weekly newspapers, 10 Community Recorder weekly newspapers, Design Magazine, Inspire Magazine, OurTown magazine, the Cincinnati.Com network of Web sites, and free-distribution advertising publications in the employment, automotive, real estate, rental, health care and shopping segments. Cincinnati.Com is The Enquirer's flagship electronic product, and encompasses 50 local and national information and advertising Web products.
The first known reference to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
as "The Windy City" appeared in the Enquirer May 9, 1876.
Early history
The Enquirer was first published April 10, 1841. The Enquirer became one of the first newspapers in the United States to publish a Sunday edition beginning on April 20, 1848. In at least the decade of the 1850s, The Enquirer also published a weekly digest edition for regional farmers. From before the Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
to 1881, The Enquirer was owned by Washington McLean
Washington McLean
Washington McLean was an American businessman of Scottish ancestry best known as the owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1848 Washington McLean and his brother S.B.W. McLean acquired a share position in the Cincinnati Enquirer to be partners with editor James...
, a Copperhead
Copperheads (politics)
The Copperheads were a vocal group of Democrats in the Northern United States who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Republicans started calling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads," likening them to the venomous snake...
whose editorial policies led to the suppression of the paper by the United States government during the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. After the war, McLean pursued an anti-Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
stance. One of his star writers was Lafcadio Hearn
Lafcadio Hearn
Patrick Lafcadio Hearn , known also by the Japanese name , was an international writer, known best for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things...
, who wrote for the paper from 1872 to 1875. James W. Faulkner
James W. Faulkner
James W. Faulkner was an American political journalist from Cincinnati, Ohio, whose career spanned local politics in Cincinnati; state politics in Ohio; and whose writings covered the Presidential campaigns of both parties from 1892 through 1920...
started was a newspaperman from the Enquirer who became the political correspondent for the paper covering the Ohio State Legislature and Statehouse from 1887 until his death. The Faulkner Letter was a well-known column often carried in regional newspapers. From 1881 to his death in 1916, it was run by his son, John Roll McLean
John Roll McLean
John Roll McLean was the owner and publisher of The Washington Post and The Cincinnati Enquirer. McLean was also a one-time partner in the ownership of the Cincinnati Red Stockings baseball team of the American Association and also the Cincinnati Outlaw Reds of the Union Association.He was born...
. Having little faith in his only child, Ned, John Roll McLean put the Enquirer and another paper he owned, The Washington Post, in trust with a Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
bank as trustee
Trustee
Trustee is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, can refer to any person who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the benefit of another...
. Ned successfully broke the trust regarding The Post, an action that led to its bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
and eventual sale to Eugene Meyer
Eugene Meyer
Eugene Isaac Meyer was an American financier, public official, publisher of the Washington Post newspaper. He served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1930 to 1933. He was the father of publisher Katharine Graham.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, he was one of eight children of...
in 1933. The Enquirer, however, continued to be held in trust until 1952.
Typography
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading , adjusting the spaces between groups of letters and adjusting the space between pairs of letters...
.
In 1952, the bank decided to sell to Charles Phelps Taft
Charles Phelps Taft
Charles Phelps Taft I was an American lawyer and politician.-Biography:He was born on December 21, 1843 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Alphonso Taft, and his brother was President William Howard Taft....
, the owner of the Cincinnati Times-Star and a member of the presidential Taft family, but the employees of the paper pooled their assets and obtained loans to outbid him. However, they lacked sufficient capital and managerial expertise to run the paper. Beset by financial problems and internal strife, the paper was sold to The E. W. Scripps Company in 1956, the owner of The Cincinnati Post. Scripps held the paper until 1968 when it was forced to sell after the government successfully brought an anti-trust action. American Financial, a company controlled by Cincinnati millionaire Carl Lindner
Carl Lindner, Jr.
Carl Henry Lindner, Jr. was a Cincinnati businessman and one of the world's richest people. According to the 2006 issue of Forbes Magazine's 400 list, Lindner was ranked 133 and was worth an estimated $2.3 billion...
bought the paper, selling it to another Lindner company, Combined Communications, in 1969. Combined Communications, based in Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, merged with Gannett in 1979.
In 1977, the paper entered into a joint operating agreement with the other daily in Cincinnati, the afternoon Cincinnati Post. Under the agreement, The Enquirer handled all business functions of both papers, including printing, distribution, and selling advertising. In January 2004, The Enquirer informed the Post it would not be renewing the agreement upon its expiration December 31, 2007. This led to the closure of the Post, which left The Enquirer as the only daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, a region that is home to more than 30 local weekly newspapers and several magazines and tabloids.
Offices
Beginning in 1866, The Enquirer was published from offices in the 600 block of Vine Street in downtown Cincinnati. Beginning in 1916, the newspaper constructed a new headquarters and printing plantCincinnati Enquirer Building
The Cincinnati Enquirer Building is the former headquarters building for The Cincinnati Enquirer. Located on Vine Street in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, the Enquirer Building was designed by the firm of Lockwood Greene and Company and completed in 1926. Construction of the building...
on this property; its final details were finished in 1928. The newspaper moved to its present Elm Street headquarters in 1992.
Recent history
On November 1, 1996, The Enquirer initiated daily publication of a free InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
edition containing most of the local content produced by its reporters, photographers, and columnists. The Enquirer also launched GoCinci.Net, an Internet Service Provider
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
and free World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
site
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
that presented content from The Enquirer and the Post. In August 1998, The Enquirer renamed its Web site Cincinnati.com. In May 2002, Cincinnati.com was expanded to represent local news competitor WCPO-TV
WCPO-TV
WCPO-TV, virtual channel 9 , is an ABC-affiliated television station in Cincinnati, Ohio. WCPO's studio is located in the Mount Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati, just outside of Eden Park. Its transmitter is located along Symmes Street, just south of East McMillan Street in Cincinnati.The station...
, owned by the E.W. Scripps Company.
In May 2003, Gannett Co. replaced Harry Whipple, who had been president and publisher for 11 years. The new publisher, Margaret E. Buchanan, is a Cincinnati native who was previously publisher of the Idaho Statesman
Idaho Statesman
The Idaho Statesman is a U.S. daily newspaper serving the Boise, Idaho metropolitan area. The paper has a circulation of 61,000 daily, 83,038 Sunday, and employs about 300 people. It is owned by The McClatchy Company....
in Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
. She is the newspaper's first woman publisher. Also in 2003, Tom Callinan, a veteran Gannett editor whose previous top positions included newspapers in Phoenix and Rochester, N.Y., became editor of the Enquirer.
In October 2003 The Enquirer began publishing and distributing CiN Weekly, a free lifestyle magazine aimed at younger readers.
In October 2005 The Enquirer launched NKY.com, a Web site covering news from the Northern Kentucky counties of Boone, Campbell and Kenton. This was one of the first newspaper-published Web sites to make extensive use of user-created content, featured prominently on its 38 community pages.
In April 2006, The Enquirer was cited by The Associated Press with the news cooperative's General Excellence Award, naming The Enquirer as the best major daily newspaper in Ohio. Earlier that year, parent Gannett Co. named The Enquirer the most improved of the more than 100 newspapers in the chain.
In August 2006, Cincinnati.Com launched 186 community pages for Ohio and Indiana towns and neighborhoods. Cincinnati.Com began soliciting and publishing stories and articles from the public. Readers-submitted content also is extensively featured in Your HomeTown Enquirer, six zoned twice-weekly local news sections published on Thursday and Saturday in Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont counties.
External links
- Cincinnati.Com (official site)
- Cincinnati.Com (official mobile site)
- (official iPhone site)
- NKY.com (official site)
- Enquirer.com (official site)
- Cinweekly.com (official site)
- Gannett Co. Inc. official site
- Gannett Co. Inc. profile of The Cincinnati Enquirer
- Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton CountyPublic Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton CountyThe Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is among the largest and busiest public library systems in the world. In addition to its Main Library location in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, PLCH operates 41 regional and branch locations throughout Hamilton County., the PLCH's collection holds...
, Newsdex (an index to historical newspapers in the Cincinnati area), http://newsdex.cincinnatilibrary.org/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/49.