Times Herald-Record
Encyclopedia
The Times Herald-Record, often referred to as The Record or Middletown Record in its coverage area, is a daily newspaper
published in Middletown
, New York
, covering the northwest suburbs of New York City
. It covers Orange
, Sullivan
and Ulster
counties in New York; Pike County
in Pennsylvania; and Sussex County
in New Jersey. It is published in a tabloid format.
The newspaper's news-gathering operations are largely decentralized, the result of its large geographic reach. Its news staff reports from three bureaus:
It came into being in the late 1950s when Middletown's two papers merged. It is owned by News Corporation
, with the New York Post
and The Wall Street Journal
its sister papers in the New York metropolitan area
.
) Press of the 1850s and the Daily Times, founded in 1891, and the Daily Herald, founded in 1918, but also going back to the 1850s. The Times Herald had the Middletown market to itself from 1927 until 1956, when Jacob M. Kaplan started publishing the Middletown Daily Record, the first daily U.S. newspaper to use cold type, from a garage on North Street. The new paper grew to a daily circulation
of 19,000 within three years but lost a lot of money in the process.
In November 1959, James Ottaway, the founder of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., bought the Times-Herald and the Port Jervis Union-Gazette from Ralph Ingersoll
, who had owned the papers since 1951. The Gazette, serving Port Jervis and surrounding communities, still exists as a weekly newspaper published by the Times Herald-Record. A few months later, in April 1960, Kaplan sold his Daily Record to Ottaway. Ottaway tried to convert the paper to a broadsheet
, but restored the original format after three months. In October 1960 the two papers were merged into their current form. The Sunday Record began in 1969, shortly after Ottaway itself was acquired by Dow Jones. In 2007, when News Corp. bought Dow Jones, the newspaper again changed hands.
The Record was often an innovator in newspaper publishing and was one of the first to print color. The newspaper underwent a significant redesign and page cut-down in 2007. At that time, The Sunday Record was given the standard Times Herald-Record nameplate. In 2008, the newspaper's Web site, recordonline.com, underwent a complementary redesign. The in-print and online redesigns were launched to coincide with bolstered local and business news coverage.
The Record is the newspaper covering Bethel, New York
, where the Woodstock Festival
was held in 1969. It can be seen in both the 1970 documentary
and 2009's Taking Woodstock
.
after the merge in 1960, a position he held until he was named editorial page editor in 1976. His youngest son is climate expert Joseph J. Romm
.
Malcolm Browne
, who later won the Pulitzer Prize
covering the Vietnam War
for the Associated Press
.
Manny Fuchs (1924–2005) joined the Daily Record in 1957 and became chief photographer in 1960. He was a concentration camp survivor who became a photojournalist. Before and during his stint at the Record, he photographed Picasso
, Marilyn Monroe
, Tennessee Williams
, and Ben Hecht
, among others. In 1966, he went to Vietnam to take pictures of hometown soldiers in the war zone. In addition to his photojournalism assignments, he was a patient teacher but hard taskmaster. After retiring, he and his wife returned to her native France and lived in Paris, but came back to Middletown where they lived until his death in 2005.
Glenn Doty, one of the paper's former managing editor
s, later trained hundreds of student journalists at The Legislative Gazette, a student-run newspaper covering state government in Albany
operated jointly by the SUNY
campuses at New Paltz
and Albany.
Hunter S. Thompson
was another notable former employee. The future creator of gonzo journalism
was fired by Editor A.N. Romm after "kicking open the office candy machine with his bare feet - again."
Mike Levine (1952–2007) began as a columnist in 1983, working his way up to executive editor in 1999. He left The Record in 2001 to accept a position as senior editor at ESPN
the Magazine in New York City, where his work helped the magazine earn the 2002 award for General Excellence by the American Society of Magazine Editors. Levine returned to the Record as executive editor in 2002, and during his tenure, the newspaper was named New York's Newspaper of Distinction three times by the Associated Press. The paper's Sunday sports section was also twice named one of the top 10 in the nation by the Associated Press Sports Editors. Levine also co-authored two children's sports books on family values.The Mike Levine Journalism Education Fund was founded after his death, and sponsors an annual training for aspiring writers at The Mike Levine Workshop. The workshop is led each year by prominent writers. In addition, an annual Mike Levine Column Read-a-Thon is held which raises money for the Education Fund. Levine is the first writer in the history of The Record for whom every article he had ever written was made available online by archive A clip of Mr. Levine addressing his community is on youtube.
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...
published in Middletown
Middletown, Orange County, New York
Middletown is a city in Orange County, New York, United States. It lies in New York's Hudson Valley region, near the Wallkill River and the foothills of the Shawangunk Mountains. Middletown is situated between Port Jervis and Newburgh, New York. The city's population was 25,388 at the 2000 census...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, covering the northwest suburbs of New York City
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...
. It covers Orange
Orange County, New York
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located at the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area. The county sits in the state's scenic Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley...
, Sullivan
Sullivan County, New York
Sullivan County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 77,547. The county seat is Monticello. The name is in honor of Major General John Sullivan, who was a hero in the American Revolutionary War...
and Ulster
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...
counties in New York; Pike County
Pike County, Pennsylvania
-National protected areas:* Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area * Middle Delaware National Scenic River * Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River -Demographics:...
in Pennsylvania; and Sussex County
Sussex County, New Jersey
The County of Sussex is the northernmost county in the State of New Jersey. It is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 Federal decennial census, 149,265 persons resided in Sussex County...
in New Jersey. It is published in a tabloid format.
The newspaper's news-gathering operations are largely decentralized, the result of its large geographic reach. Its news staff reports from three bureaus:
- MiddletownMiddletown, Orange County, New YorkMiddletown is a city in Orange County, New York, United States. It lies in New York's Hudson Valley region, near the Wallkill River and the foothills of the Shawangunk Mountains. Middletown is situated between Port Jervis and Newburgh, New York. The city's population was 25,388 at the 2000 census...
, covering Orange and Pike (Pa.) counties - KingstonKingston, New YorkKingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...
, covering Ulster County - MonticelloMonticello, New YorkMonticello is a village located in the Town of Thompson in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was 6,512 at the 2000 census. It is the seat for the Town of Thompson and the county seat of Sullivan County...
, covering Sullivan County
It came into being in the late 1950s when Middletown's two papers merged. It is owned by News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
, with the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
and The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
its sister papers in the New York metropolitan area
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...
.
History
A newspaper has been in existence in some form in the city of Middletown since 1851. The Times Herald was the result of a 1927 merger of the Times-Press, a merger of the old Middletown (WhigWhig
-In the British Isles:* A faction of the Scottish Covenanters during the 17th-century Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and the original Whigs....
) Press of the 1850s and the Daily Times, founded in 1891, and the Daily Herald, founded in 1918, but also going back to the 1850s. The Times Herald had the Middletown market to itself from 1927 until 1956, when Jacob M. Kaplan started publishing the Middletown Daily Record, the first daily U.S. newspaper to use cold type, from a garage on North Street. The new paper grew to a daily circulation
Newspaper circulation
A newspaper's circulation is the number of copies it distributes on an average day. Circulation is one of the principal factors used to set advertising rates. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulation, since some newspapers are distributed without cost to the...
of 19,000 within three years but lost a lot of money in the process.
Ralph Ingersoll
Ralph Ingersoll may refer to:* Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll , United States Representative from Connecticut* Ralph Ingersoll , founder and publisher of the short-lived 1940s daily newspaper PM...
, who had owned the papers since 1951. The Gazette, serving Port Jervis and surrounding communities, still exists as a weekly newspaper published by the Times Herald-Record. A few months later, in April 1960, Kaplan sold his Daily Record to Ottaway. Ottaway tried to convert the paper to a broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
, but restored the original format after three months. In October 1960 the two papers were merged into their current form. The Sunday Record began in 1969, shortly after Ottaway itself was acquired by Dow Jones. In 2007, when News Corp. bought Dow Jones, the newspaper again changed hands.
The Record was often an innovator in newspaper publishing and was one of the first to print color. The newspaper underwent a significant redesign and page cut-down in 2007. At that time, The Sunday Record was given the standard Times Herald-Record nameplate. In 2008, the newspaper's Web site, recordonline.com, underwent a complementary redesign. The in-print and online redesigns were launched to coincide with bolstered local and business news coverage.
The Record is the newspaper covering Bethel, New York
Bethel, New York
Bethel is a town in Sullivan County, New York, USA. The population has been estimated at 4,532 in 2007.The town received worldwide fame after it became the host of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, which was originally planned for Wallkill, New York, but was relocated to Bethel after Wallkill withdrew.-...
, where the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
was held in 1969. It can be seen in both the 1970 documentary
Woodstock (film)
Woodstock is a 1970 American documentary on the Woodstock Festival that took place in August 1969 at Bethel in New York. Entertainment Weekly called this film the benchmark of concert movies and one of the most entertaining documentaries ever made...
and 2009's Taking Woodstock
Taking Woodstock
Taking Woodstock is a 2009 American comedy-drama film about the Woodstock Festival of 1969, directed by Ang Lee. The screenplay by James Schamus is based on the memoir Taking Woodstock: A True Story of a Riot, a Concert, and a Life by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monte.The film premiered at the 2009 Cannes...
.
Prominent deceased and former employees
Avrom "Al" Romm (1926–1999), named city editor of the Daily Record in 1957, became the Times Herald-Record first managing editorManaging editor
A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team.In the United States, a managing editor oversees and coordinates the publication's editorial activities...
after the merge in 1960, a position he held until he was named editorial page editor in 1976. His youngest son is climate expert Joseph J. Romm
Joseph J. Romm
Joseph J. Romm is an American author, blogger, physicist and climate expert who concentrates on methods of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and global warming and increasing energy security through energy efficiency, green energy technologies and green transportation technologies...
.
Malcolm Browne
Malcolm Browne
Malcolm Wilde Browne is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and photographer. His best known work is the award-winning photograph of the self-immolation of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức in 1963.- Early life :...
, who later won the 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...
covering the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
for the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
.
Manny Fuchs (1924–2005) joined the Daily Record in 1957 and became chief photographer in 1960. He was a concentration camp survivor who became a photojournalist. Before and during his stint at the Record, he photographed Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
, and Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
, among others. In 1966, he went to Vietnam to take pictures of hometown soldiers in the war zone. In addition to his photojournalism assignments, he was a patient teacher but hard taskmaster. After retiring, he and his wife returned to her native France and lived in Paris, but came back to Middletown where they lived until his death in 2005.
Glenn Doty, one of the paper's former managing editor
Managing editor
A managing editor is a senior member of a publication's management team.In the United States, a managing editor oversees and coordinates the publication's editorial activities...
s, later trained hundreds of student journalists at The Legislative Gazette, a student-run newspaper covering state government in Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
operated jointly by the SUNY
State University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
campuses at New Paltz
State University of New York at New Paltz
The State University of New York at New Paltz, known as SUNY New Paltz for short, is a public university in New Paltz, New York. It was founded in 1828 as the School for teaching of classics. In 1885, the New Paltz Normal and Training School was established as a school to prepare teachers for the...
and Albany.
Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author who wrote The Rum Diary , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 .He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to...
was another notable former employee. The future creator of gonzo journalism
Gonzo journalism
Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative. The word "gonzo" is believed to be first used in 1970 to describe an article by Hunter S. Thompson, who later popularized the style...
was fired by Editor A.N. Romm after "kicking open the office candy machine with his bare feet - again."
Mike Levine (1952–2007) began as a columnist in 1983, working his way up to executive editor in 1999. He left The Record in 2001 to accept a position as senior editor at ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
the Magazine in New York City, where his work helped the magazine earn the 2002 award for General Excellence by the American Society of Magazine Editors. Levine returned to the Record as executive editor in 2002, and during his tenure, the newspaper was named New York's Newspaper of Distinction three times by the Associated Press. The paper's Sunday sports section was also twice named one of the top 10 in the nation by the Associated Press Sports Editors. Levine also co-authored two children's sports books on family values.The Mike Levine Journalism Education Fund was founded after his death, and sponsors an annual training for aspiring writers at The Mike Levine Workshop. The workshop is led each year by prominent writers. In addition, an annual Mike Levine Column Read-a-Thon is held which raises money for the Education Fund. Levine is the first writer in the history of The Record for whom every article he had ever written was made available online by archive A clip of Mr. Levine addressing his community is on youtube.