The Oregon Journal was Portland, Oregon's daily afternoon newspaper from 1902 to 1982. The Journal was founded in Portland by C. S. "Sam" Jackson, publisher of Pendleton, Oregon's East Oregonian newspaper, after a group of Portlanders convinced Jackson to help in the reorganization of the Portland Evening Journal. The firm owned several radio stations in the Portland area. In 1961, the Journal was purchased by S.I. Newhouse and Advance Publications, owners also of The Oregonian, the city's morning newspaper.
Founding
The Portland Evening Journal was first published on March 10, 1902. This newspaper began as a campaign paper owned by A. D. Bowen, with William Wasson as the first editor. In July 1902, the Evening Journal, was taken over by C.S. "Sam" Jackson, who had been the publisher of the East Oregonian based in Pendleton.
Transition and decline
In 1953, Philip Jackson died from heart disease. William W. Knight, who had been the paper's legal counsel, was brought in as its new publisher. C.S. Jackson's widow, Maria Clopton Jackson, died just a few years later, in 1956. With the successive deaths of C.S. Jackson II, Philip Jackson, and Maria Jackson, no family heirs were left to oversee the business and its operations. In this era, afternoon newspapers began their decline due to the rise of television, changing commuting patterns and other forces. The paper's economic vitality was further sapped by a lengthy strike against both Portland newspapers that began in November 1959, and by the competing Portland Reporter newspaper that was launched by striking workers. The newspapers published a joint strike edition, but while separate publication of the Journal resumed in 1960, its circulation never approached pre-strike levels.
Although the will of C.S. Jackson's widow, Maria Clopton Jackson, had specified that the newspaper's stock should be transferred to its employees upon her death, the trustees of her estate challenged that decision in court. Eventually, the courts ruled that the provision was written in wishful, not binding language.
In 1961 the trustees, believing that losses from the strike could bankrupt the paper and deprive the foundation of much of its principal, sold the Journal to The Oregonian's publisher, S. I. Newhouse, for $8 million. This amount was twice the bid made by an Oregon group. Newhouse had acquired The Oregonian, Portland's morning daily, in 1950. Newhouse consolidated production and business operations of the two newspapers in The Oregonian's building while keeping their editorial staffs separate. As a result of the Newhouse acquisition, publication of the Journals Sunday edition was discontinued. The company's radio stations were sold in 1961 to make way for the Journal's sale.
The Journal never recovered the readership lost in the 1959 strike. Its circulation steadily declined through the 1960s and 1970s.
Final decade(s)
William Knight continued as publisher, retiring in 1971. Other key creative forces in the paper's final decades included Editor Donald J. Sterling Jr., columnists Dick Fagan (creator of Mill Ends Park, the world's smallest park) and Doug Baker, Sports Editor George Pasero and prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly.
Under the terms of sale of the Journal by The Jackson Foundation, the newspaper was to remain under "independent editors until 1981".
- Editor, Donald J. Sterling Jr., inducted into the Oregon Newspaper Hall of Fame, 1983