The Hartford Courant
Encyclopedia
The Hartford Courant is the largest daily newspaper
in the U.S. state
of Connecticut
, and is a morning newspaper for most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury. Its headquarters on Broad Street are a short walk from the state capitol
, and it reports regional news with a chain of bureaus in smaller cities and a series of local editions.
The Connecticut Courant began as a weekly on October 29, 1764 and was started by Thomas Green. The word "courant
" was a popular name for English-language newspapers, borrowed from the Dutch. The daily Hartford Courant traces its existence back to the weekly, thereby claiming the title "America's oldest continuously published newspaper" and adopting as its slogan, "Older than the nation." (A reborn The New Hampshire Gazette
, which started publication in 1756, but disappeared and reappeared, trademarked the title of oldest paper in the nation. The Gazette is a bi-weekly, while the Courant has not missed a week since its inception. See also, The New York Post as oldest daily, and Time magazine's view of "oldest" claims.)
The Courant was purchased in 1979 by Times Mirror, the Los Angeles Times
parent company. The first years of out-of-town ownership were described by a former Courant reporter in a book titled Spiked: How Chain Management Corrupted America's Oldest Newspaper. One criticism was that the new owners were more interested in awards, and less interested in traditional Courant devotion to exhaustive coverage of local news.
The Courant won a 1992 Pulitzer Prize
for inquiring into problems with the Hubble Space Telescope
(a Connecticut company was involved in the construction), and it won a 1999 Pulitzer Prize in the Breaking News category for coverage of a 1998 murder-suicide that took five lives at Connecticut Lottery
headquarters. A series of articles about sexual abuse by the head of a worldwide catholic order, published since February 1997, constituted the first denunciation of Marciel Maciel known to a wider audience.
In 2000, Times Mirror and the Courant became part of the Tribune Company
, one of the world's largest multimedia companies. Ironically, along the way, the Courant also acquired the Valley Advocate group of "alternative" weeklies started by two disgruntled Courant staff members in 1973. Under new ownership, it is co-owned with two local television stations: Fox
affiliate WTIC-TV
and The CW affiliate WCCT-TV.
The Courant is the most recent American newspaper to win the Society for News Design
's World's Best Designed Newspaper award (awarded in 2005). In 2006, the paper's investigation into mental health and suicides among Americans serving in the Iraq war was featured in the PBS documentary series Exposé: America's Investigative Reports
in an episode entitled "Question 7." In late June 2006, the Tribune Co. announced that Courant publisher Jack W. Davis Jr. would by replaced by Stephen D. Carver, vice president and general manager of Atlanta, Ga., TV station WATL. In March 2009, Tribune replaced Carver with Richard Graziano, who was given a dual role as Courant publisher and general manager of Tribune's two Hartford television statons. In May of the same year, Tribune announced that Jeff Levine, a newspaper executive with a background in marketing, would become "director of content" and that the editor or "print platform manager" of the Courant would report to Levine as would the news director of WTIC-TV. Shortly after that, the Courant's two highest ranking editors were let go.
In recent years the Courant has offered early retirement and buyout packages to reduce staff as it continues to experience declines in advertising revenue. There have also been layoffs; the Courant announced in June 2008 that it would lay off about 25% of its newsroom staff. Moreover, in September 2008, it would reduce the number of pages in its weekday editions.
An unspecified number of newsroom layoffs were again announced in July 2011. Newsroom staff peaked in 1994 at close to 400 staff, down to 175 staff by 2008, and 135 staff in 2009.
When two newspapers were published in Hartford, The Courant was editorially Republican and did not endorse a non-Republican for president until Bill Clinton
. When the Hartford Times ceased publication in 1976, The Courant's editorial page took an independent stance. It has endorsed Republicans and Democrats.
While the Courant editorially has recently endorsed Republican presidential candidates, its editorial approach to state government in recent decades has traditionally been liberal and opposed to what it considers short-sighted conservatism. Its strong endorsement of former Senator Lowell Weicker was decisive in the 1990 gubernatorial election. It endorsed his Lieutenant Governor Eunice Groark
for Governor in 1994. After Republican Governor John G. Rowland
announced major development initiatives for downtown Hartford, the Courant endorsed his 1998 and 2002 re-election bids. In 2006 the Courant endorsed Democrat John DeStefano, Jr.
for Governor, but he was defeated soundly by incumbent Governor M. Jodi Rell
.
The Courant's long-time law firm, Tyler Cooper & Alcorn, also happened to be the Connecticut Republican Party's law firm. That business relationship with the Republican Party ended when Tyler Cooper lawyers fought aggressively on behalf of The Courant to uncover a police report about an alleged domestic incident at Rowland's Middlebury home.
In July 2006 the Courant weighed in on the contentious Connecticut Democratic senate primary by endorsing incumbent Joe Lieberman
. The Courant also endorsed his bid in the general election.
(a major advertiser in the paper) of selling used and bedbug-infested mattresses as new.
Gombossy's lawsuit against the Courant was thrown out by a Connecticut Superior Court judge in July 2010. In his decision, Judge Marshall K. Berger, Jr. remarked that newspaper owners and editors have a "paramount" right to "control [the] content of their papers," further observing that in his role at the Courant, Gombossy had "no constitutional right to publish anything."
However, Gombossy's attorneys filed a second complaint, and Judge Berger reinstated the complaint. The case is headed to trial in the fall of 2011.
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...
in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
, and is a morning newspaper for most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury. Its headquarters on Broad Street are a short walk from the state capitol
Connecticut State Capitol
The Connecticut State Capitol is located north of Capitol Avenue and south of Bushnell Park in Hartford, the capital of Connecticut. The building houses the Connecticut General Assembly; the upper house, the State Senate, and lower house, the House of Representatives, as well as the office of the...
, and it reports regional news with a chain of bureaus in smaller cities and a series of local editions.
History
Courant
Courant may mean several things.* Courant is a common word for "newspaper". In 1618 the first periodical news sheets, called "corantos", went on sale in Amsterdam. This idea - for regular news updates - was adopted by publishers in London and on Sept 24, 1621, the first issue of an English weekly...
" was a popular name for English-language newspapers, borrowed from the Dutch. The daily Hartford Courant traces its existence back to the weekly, thereby claiming the title "America's oldest continuously published newspaper" and adopting as its slogan, "Older than the nation." (A reborn The New Hampshire Gazette
The New Hampshire Gazette
The New Hampshire Gazette is a non-profit, alternative, bi-weekly newspaper published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Its editors claim that the paper, published on-and-off in one form or another since 1756, is America's oldest newspaper and has trademarked the phrase "The Nation's Oldest...
, which started publication in 1756, but disappeared and reappeared, trademarked the title of oldest paper in the nation. The Gazette is a bi-weekly, while the Courant has not missed a week since its inception. See also, The New York Post as oldest daily, and Time magazine's view of "oldest" claims.)
The Courant was purchased in 1979 by Times Mirror, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
parent company. The first years of out-of-town ownership were described by a former Courant reporter in a book titled Spiked: How Chain Management Corrupted America's Oldest Newspaper. One criticism was that the new owners were more interested in awards, and less interested in traditional Courant devotion to exhaustive coverage of local news.
The Courant won a 1992 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
for inquiring into problems with the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
(a Connecticut company was involved in the construction), and it won a 1999 Pulitzer Prize in the Breaking News category for coverage of a 1998 murder-suicide that took five lives at Connecticut Lottery
Connecticut Lottery
The Connecticut Lottery Corporation, also called the CT Lottery, is the official lottery in Connecticut. It was created in 1971 by then-Gov. Thomas Meskill, who signed Public Act No. 865. The first tickets were sold on February 15, 1972. The Connecticut Lottery offers five in-house drawing games...
headquarters. A series of articles about sexual abuse by the head of a worldwide catholic order, published since February 1997, constituted the first denunciation of Marciel Maciel known to a wider audience.
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
, one of the world's largest multimedia companies. Ironically, along the way, the Courant also acquired the Valley Advocate group of "alternative" weeklies started by two disgruntled Courant staff members in 1973. Under new ownership, it is co-owned with two local television stations: Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
affiliate WTIC-TV
WTIC-TV
WTIC-TV, channel 61, is a television station in Hartford, Connecticut. Owned by the Tribune Company, WTIC-TV is a charter affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company...
and The CW affiliate WCCT-TV.
The Courant is the most recent American newspaper to win the Society for News Design
Society for News Design
The Society for News Design is an international organization for professionals working in the news sector of the media industry, specifically those involved with graphic design, illustration, web design and infographics....
's World's Best Designed Newspaper award (awarded in 2005). In 2006, the paper's investigation into mental health and suicides among Americans serving in the Iraq war was featured in the PBS documentary series Exposé: America's Investigative Reports
EXPOSÉ: America's Investigative Reports
Exposé: America's Investigative Reports is a half-hour PBS documentary series that details some of the most revealing investigative journalism in America. Tentatively titled Airtime during development, Thirteen/WNET and the Center for Investigative Reporting launched AIR: America's Investigative...
in an episode entitled "Question 7." In late June 2006, the Tribune Co. announced that Courant publisher Jack W. Davis Jr. would by replaced by Stephen D. Carver, vice president and general manager of Atlanta, Ga., TV station WATL. In March 2009, Tribune replaced Carver with Richard Graziano, who was given a dual role as Courant publisher and general manager of Tribune's two Hartford television statons. In May of the same year, Tribune announced that Jeff Levine, a newspaper executive with a background in marketing, would become "director of content" and that the editor or "print platform manager" of the Courant would report to Levine as would the news director of WTIC-TV. Shortly after that, the Courant's two highest ranking editors were let go.
In recent years the Courant has offered early retirement and buyout packages to reduce staff as it continues to experience declines in advertising revenue. There have also been layoffs; the Courant announced in June 2008 that it would lay off about 25% of its newsroom staff. Moreover, in September 2008, it would reduce the number of pages in its weekday editions.
An unspecified number of newsroom layoffs were again announced in July 2011. Newsroom staff peaked in 1994 at close to 400 staff, down to 175 staff by 2008, and 135 staff in 2009.
Politics
In its most recent endorsements for U.S. President, Connecticut Senator, and Connecticut Governor, the Courant endorsed the Democratic candidate each time. In all three cases, the state of Connecticut voted in agreement with the endorsement.- 2008 U.S. PresidentUnited States presidential election, 2008The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
: Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain. "In its 244-year history, The Courant has endorsed only one Democratic candidate for president, Bill Clinton. Today we endorse a second Democrat, Sen. Barack Obama, with the hope that if elected, he governs from the middle as Mr. Clinton did. Mr. Obama must resist serving only his party's interests and instead serve the greater interests of a worried nation."
- 2010 Connecticut SenateUnited States Senate election in Connecticut, 2010The 2010 United States Senate election in Connecticut was a midterm election which took place on November 2, 2010 to decide a Class III Senator from the State of Connecticut to join the 112th United States Congress. Incumbent Democratic U.S...
: Democrat Richard Blumenthal over Republican Linda McMahon. "We go with state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the Democrat, in our hope that, if elected, he will advocate for Connecticut in Washington as successfully as he's advocated for the state's people from Hartford these past two decades."
- 2010 Connecticut GovernorConnecticut gubernatorial election, 2010The 2010 Connecticut gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 2010 to elect the 73rd Governor of Connecticut. Incumbent Governor M. Jodi Rell had announced in a press conference in Hartford on November 9, 2009, that she would not seek re-election in 2010...
: Democrat Dan Malloy over Republican Tom Foley. "Connecticut voters have a tough choice in this year's gubernatorial race, and that is a good thing. Both major-party candidates, Democrat Dannel Malloy, 55, of Stamford, and Republican Tom Foley, 58, of Greenwich, are smart, forceful and energetic. Both are up to the job. Both agree the state needs to live within its means and improve its economy. However, Mr. Malloy's experience in municipal government persuades The Courant he is the best candidate."
When two newspapers were published in Hartford, The Courant was editorially Republican and did not endorse a non-Republican for president until Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. When the Hartford Times ceased publication in 1976, The Courant's editorial page took an independent stance. It has endorsed Republicans and Democrats.
While the Courant editorially has recently endorsed Republican presidential candidates, its editorial approach to state government in recent decades has traditionally been liberal and opposed to what it considers short-sighted conservatism. Its strong endorsement of former Senator Lowell Weicker was decisive in the 1990 gubernatorial election. It endorsed his Lieutenant Governor Eunice Groark
Eunice Groark
Eunice S. Groark was elected the first female lieutenant governor of Connecticut in 1990. Groark ran on a ticket with Lowell Weicker, both of whom were members of A Connecticut Party...
for Governor in 1994. After Republican Governor John G. Rowland
John G. Rowland
John Grosvenor Rowland was the 86th Governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004; he is a member of the Republican Party. He is married to Patty Rowland, his second wife, and the couple have five children between them...
announced major development initiatives for downtown Hartford, the Courant endorsed his 1998 and 2002 re-election bids. In 2006 the Courant endorsed Democrat John DeStefano, Jr.
John DeStefano, Jr.
John DeStefano, Jr. is the current mayor of New Haven, Connecticut. He was the Democratic candidate in 2006 for Governor of Connecticut, unsuccessfully challenging incumbent Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell. He was also the named defendant in the landmark 2009 U.S. Supreme Court case of Ricci v...
for Governor, but he was defeated soundly by incumbent Governor M. Jodi Rell
M. Jodi Rell
Mary Jodi Rell is a Republican politician and was the 87th Governor of the U.S. state of Connecticut from 2004 until 2011. She was the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut under Governor John G. Rowland, who resigned during a corruption investigation. Rell is Connecticut's second female Governor,...
.
The Courant's long-time law firm, Tyler Cooper & Alcorn, also happened to be the Connecticut Republican Party's law firm. That business relationship with the Republican Party ended when Tyler Cooper lawyers fought aggressively on behalf of The Courant to uncover a police report about an alleged domestic incident at Rowland's Middlebury home.
In July 2006 the Courant weighed in on the contentious Connecticut Democratic senate primary by endorsing incumbent Joe Lieberman
Joe Lieberman
Joseph Isadore "Joe" Lieberman is the senior United States Senator from Connecticut. A former member of the Democratic Party, he was the party's nominee for Vice President in the 2000 election. Currently an independent, he remains closely affiliated with the party.Born in Stamford, Connecticut,...
. The Courant also endorsed his bid in the general election.
2009 Plagiarism
In September 2009 the Courant's publisher, Richard Graziano, publicly apologized as the newspaper accepted a plagiarism charge. Competitors had accused the Courant of taking its content without permission and refusing to give proper credit.http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=10040093932009 Sleepy's
In August, 2009, the Courant attracted some controversy over its firing of George Gombossy, a 40-year veteran of the paper and its consumer advocate at the time. Gombossy charged that the Courant had spiked an article he had written about an ongoing investigation by the Connecticut attorney general accusing Sleepy'sSleepy's
Sleepy’s LLC is an American retailing company and mattress store chain founded in 1931 in Brooklyn, New York, United States. As of 2009, Sleepy's had over 700 stores and five distribution centers in 11 states in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic, with over 2,900 employees.- Business operations...
(a major advertiser in the paper) of selling used and bedbug-infested mattresses as new.
Gombossy's lawsuit against the Courant was thrown out by a Connecticut Superior Court judge in July 2010. In his decision, Judge Marshall K. Berger, Jr. remarked that newspaper owners and editors have a "paramount" right to "control [the] content of their papers," further observing that in his role at the Courant, Gombossy had "no constitutional right to publish anything."
However, Gombossy's attorneys filed a second complaint, and Judge Berger reinstated the complaint. The case is headed to trial in the fall of 2011.