The Providence Journal

225px|thumb|Logo of projo.com

The Providence Journal, colloquially known as the ProJo, is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, and is the largest newspaper in Rhode Island, US. The newspaper was first published in 1829. The newspaper had won four Pulitzer Prizes .

The Journal bills itself as "America's oldest daily newspaper in continuous publication",

History

Early years

The beginnings of the Providence Journal Company were on January 3, 1820, when publisher "Honest" John Miller started the Manufacturers' & Farmers' Journal, Providence & Pawtucket Advertiser in Providence, published twice per week. The paper's office was in the old Coffee House, at the corner of Market Square and Canal street.

Knowles, Anthony & Danielson

During the years 1863 to 1884 the Journal was published by Knowles, Anthony & Danielson. During the Danielson/Anthony years, the paper was solidly allied with textile mill owners and big business, and frequently gave support to nativist anti-Irish Catholic sentiment. It is possible this was an early inspiration for Dow's later development of his "stock index" at The Wall Street Journal. In contrast to Danielson and Anthony, Williams had a sympathetic appreciation for the Irish culture. Nonetheless, Rathom remained editor until his death in 1923.

The Journal dropped "Daily" from its name and became The Providence Journal in 1920. In 1992, the Bulletin was discontinued, and its name was appended onto that of the morning paper: The Providence Journal-Bulletin.

Starting in 1925, the Journal became the first in the country to expand coverage statewide.

In 1937, the only competing Providence-based daily, the Star-Tribune, went bankrupt and was sold. The Providence Journal company bought it and kept it running for four months, then shut it down. One source passed on to White evidence that President Richard Nixon had paid taxes amounting to $792.81 in 1970 and $878.03 in 1971, despite earning more than $400,000. White would later recall rolling the story out of his typewriter, folding it up and putting it in his wallet.

1990s

In the 1990s, rising production costs and declines in circulation prompted the Journal to consolidate both the bureaus and the editions. The editors tried to reinvigorate the coverage of city and town news in 1996, but competition from the Internet added fuel to the decline.

In 1997, the Livingston Award, sometimes called the "Pulitzer Prize for the Young",

Financial problems and sale

In the face of declining revenue, the paper began charging for obituaries on January 4, 2005.

The paper's last Massachusetts edition was published on March 10, 2006. On Oct. 10, 2008, the paper stopped publishing all of its zoned editions in Rhode Island and laid off 33 news staffers, including three managers. Even during the Great Depression, the Journal had not terminated news staff to cut costs.

The next few years included an extensive campaign to make the Internet version of the paper profitable. The Journal aggressively marketed its news on the web, pushing to get detailed stories onto its website, projo.com, before competing radio, television and other print outlets. But circulation continued to decline and online advertising failed to compensate.

In June 2011, the Journal laid off more than a dozen employees and eliminated its Promotion Department which had internally handled the newspaper's marketing and community affairs events for decades.

On Oct. 18, 2011, with circulation down to about 94,000 on weekdays and 129,000 on Sundays (down from 164,000 and over 231,000 in 2005), the Journal renamed its website providencejournal.com, a move which meant that most of the previous Internet links to its content no longer worked. It also began implementing a system to require online readers to pay for content. Interactive images of its newspaper pages were initially available on personal computers and on the iPad for free. The paywall was put in place on February 28, 2012. The new website was part of a larger rebranding project by Nail Communications which also included a campaign entitled "We Work For The Truth". The rebranding failed to stem the circulation decline.

Throughout most of its history, the paper was privately owned. After the Journal became publicly traded and had acquired several television stations throughout the country (as well as cable television systems under the banner of Colony Communications; these systems were sold to Continental Cablevision in 1995), it was sold to the Dallas-based Belo Corp. in 1996. Belo also owned several television stations. The company later split into two entities and one, A. H. Belo, took control of the newspapers.

On Dec. 4, 2013, A. H. Belo announced that it was seeking a buyer for the Journal, including its headquarters on 75 Fountain St. and its separate printing facility. The company said it wanted to focus on business interests in Dallas. Workers were not surprised because the announcement came after the company sold one of its other papers, the Riverside Press-Enterprise in California.

A. H. Belo announced on July 22, 2014, that it was selling the paper's assets to New Media Investment Group Inc., parent company of Fairport, N.Y.-based GateHouse Media, for $46 million. By then, the Journals Monday through Friday circulation had dropped to 74,400, with an average of 99,100 on Sundays. Its website was getting 1.4 million unique users on an average month. The sale was completed on Sept. 3, 2014, as several employees, including widely respected columnist Bob Kerr, were told they would not be transferred to the new company.

Bernie Szachara, senior vice president for publishing and group publisher at Local Media Group, a division of GateHouse Media, assumed the title of interim publisher, succeeding Howard G. Sutton. On Feb. 27, 2015, Janet Hasson was named president and publisher of the Journal. The GateHouse Media news release announcing the appointment incorrectly reported that Hasson was the paper's first female publisher. That distinction belongs to Mary Caroline Knowles, who was publisher from 1874 until 1879.

In 2019, Journal parent company GateHouse Media purchased Gannett, the publisher of USA Today. This purchase established GateHouse as the largest newspaper company in the United States "by far",

Falling circulation

In October 2015, average daily paid circulation was 89,452 on Sundays and 70,600 on weekdays. By June 2017, circulation was down to about 72,000 on Sundays and 56,000 on weekdays. In 2021 those figures dropped to 38,500 on Sundays and 29,957 weekdays; by contrast, both figures in 1990 were over 200,000. In December 2022, as part of a 6 percent targeted reduction in the Gannett news division, executive editor David Ng was laid-off. In 1823 it moved to the Union building, on the west side of the bridge, and in the following year to the Granite building, Market Square. The Journal moved in 1934 to its present building on Fountain Street where the original Benny's store was located.

File:Providence Journal Building taken 2017.jpg|The Old Providence Journal Building at 203 Westminster St. seen from the corner of Westminster and Eddy Streets

File:PPS Plaque on Providence Journal Building.jpg|Plaque on the Old Providence Journal Building

File:Journal Building, Providence, RI.jpg|The current home of The Providence Journal on Fountain Street

File:Providence Journal Production Facility.jpg|Production facility on Kinsey Avenue

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Journalism prizes and awards

Chief editorial writer George W. Potter won the Journals first Pulitzer in 1945 for a series of editorials on freedom of the press
In 1950, editor Sevellon Brown and reporter Ben Bagdikian received Honorable Mention from the Peabody Awards for a series of commentaries and criticisms of broadcasts by Walter Winchell
In 1953 the editorial staff won the Pulitzer for local reporting their spontaneous and cooperative coverage of a bank robbery and police chase leading to the capture of the bandit.
In 1974, reporter Jack White won a Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for investigating President Richard Nixon's Federal income tax payments in 1970 and 1971.
In 1994, the Journal won a Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for exposing corruption in the Rhode Island court system
In 1997, the Livingston Award, sometimes called the "Pulitzer Prize for the Young,"

Notable contributors

Henry B. Anthony
Ben Bagdikian
C. J. Chivers
Charles Henry Dow
Steven Krasner
Philip Terzian
Ruth Tripp
Joseph Ungaro
Robert Whitcomb
Jack White

Volume numbering

Through the paper's long history, there have been some inconsistencies in its volume numbering. In 1972, when the Saturday editions of the Journal and Bulletin were combined to create the Journal-Bulletin, the Saturday edition was reset to become Volume 1, Number 1.

External links