The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for
Austin
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, the capital city of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. It is owned by
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.[Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...]
, ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', and ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' international and national news, but has strong Central Texas coverage, especially in political reporting. The ''Statesman'' benefits from the culture and writing heritage of Austin. It extensively covers the
music scene, especially the annual
South by Southwest Music Festival
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, T ...
. The newspaper co-sponsors Austin events such as the Capital 10K, one of the largest
10K run
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...
s in the U.S., and the Season for Caring charity campaign. In the Austin market, the ''Statesman'' competes with the ''
Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'', an
alternative weekly
An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting l ...
.
Circulation
In 2009, the ''Austin American-Statesman'' ranked 60th in circulation among daily newspapers, according to the
Audit Bureau of Circulations An Audit Bureau of Circulations is a private organization that provides industry-agreed standards for media brand measurement of print publications and other media outlets in a given country. The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulat ...
. Figures from Scarborough Research show the ''Statesman'' — in print and online – reaches 68% of Central Texans in an average week.
Following a national trend among daily newspapers, the ''Statesman'' has seen circulation declines in recent years. Austin is one of America's most Internet-connected cities, though not ranked in the 25 largest "connected" cities, and in a related trend, the ''Statesman's'' daily circulation ranks among those cities seeing drops of 5% or more in recent reports.
As compared to a U.S. national decline of 2.1%, the ''Statesman's'' daily circulation in the most recent six-month reporting period fell 5.6% to 173,527. Its Sunday circulation fell 5.5% to 215,984. Austin is the 11th-largest city (and the
35th-largest metropolitan area
A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...
) in the U.S.
Politics
''The Statesman'' endorsed
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections,
and Republican governor
Rick Perry
James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 and as the 47th governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015. Perry also ran unsuccessfully for the Republica ...
along with every other Republican incumbent in 2006. In the 2008 presidential election, however, the paper endorsed
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
.
The ''Statesman'' also provides coverage of
Libertarian Party
Active parties by country
Defunct parties by country
Organizations associated with Libertarian parties
See also
* Liberal parties by country
* List of libertarian organizations
* Lists of political parties
* Outline of libertarianism ...
and
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
matters.
History
Founded as the triweekly ''Democratic Statesman'' in 1871, the newspaper was originally allied with the
state Democratic party during
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
. It began daily publication as a morning paper in 1873. After absorbing the ''Austin Tribune'' in 1914, it published as the afternoon ''Austin Statesman and Tribune'', then became an evening paper and changed its name to the ''Austin Evening Statesman'' in 1916.
A rival paper, the morning ''Austin American'', began in 1914. Waco-based newspapermen Charles E. Marsh and E.S. Fentress bought the ''American'' in 1919 and the ''Evening Statesman'' in 1924. Merged under one company, the morning and evening papers published separately during the week and combined for a Sunday ''Austin American Statesman'' edition. The company continued separate titles until 1973, when all products became the ''American-Statesman'', with four editions daily.
Cox Enterprises
Cox Enterprises, Inc. is a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in total revenue. Its major operating subsidiaries are Cox Communications and Co ...
acquired the ''Statesman'' when it bought the Waco newspaper company in 1976. In 1987, the ''Statesman'' moved to morning-only publication.
In 2008, Cox put the ''Statesman'' up for sale with most of its other newspaper holdings to pay down debt. A year later, the company pulled the paper off the market, citing a lack of suitable offers.
The newspaper was part of the subsidiary
Cox Media Group
CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company pri ...
, which joined the corporation's television, radio, and newspaper assets under one umbrella in 2008.
The ''Statesman'' was named Texas Associated Press Managing Editors' Newspaper of the Year in 2013, 2014, and 2016, besting Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas.
In 2015, ''¡Ahora Sí!'' was named the best Spanish-language newspaper in the country for its circulation size by the National Association of Hispanic Publishers.
On March 6, 2018, the sale of the ''Statesman'' to
GateHouse Media from Cox Media Group was announced. Upon taking over in April, GateHouse said the ''Statesman'' would be the "flagship" of the expanding chain, noting its existing 240-employee design and editing hub in Austin.
Becoming a Gannett property
In August 2019, New Media Investment Group, the parent entity of GateHouse Media, announced it had agreed to buy
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.[USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...]
'', the ''
Arizona Republic
''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...
'', the ''
Detroit Free Press
The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...
'', and several other newspapers), and operations would continue under the Gannett rather than GateHouse name, at the Gannett headquarters outside Washington, DC, but under New Media's CEO. The acquisition of Gannett by New Media Investment Group was completed on November 19, 2019, making the combined company the largest newspaper publisher in the United States. Immediately after the merger was finalized, all GateHouse Media URLs began redirecting to Gannett.com. The ''Statesman'' website was soon redesigned to match the format of the ''USA Today'' website and those of the other Gannett papers.
Community weeklies
The ''Austin American-Statesman'' publishes these community weeklies:
*''
The Bastrop Advertiser''
*''Smithville Times''
*''Westlake Picayune''
*''Lake Travis View''
*''Round Rock Leader''
*''Pflugerville Pflag''
Newsroom management and staff
*Executive editor: John Bridges
*Managing editor: Andy Alford
*Senior editor for digital: Courtney Sebesta
*Online news editor: Gabrielle Munoz
*Social media editor: Amanda O'Donnell
*Senior editor for sports : Jason Jarrett
*Business editor: Barry Harrell
*Features editor: Sharon Chapman
*Austin360 editor: Eric Webb
*Photo director: Nell Carroll
*Video editor: James Gregg
*State editor: Bob Gee
*Viewpoints editor: Juan Castillo
The newspaper had a full-time arts writer, Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, who was hired in 1999. Her post was eliminated in 2016.
See also
*
List of newspapers in Texas
This is a list of newspapers in Texas, United States.
Daily, weekly, and other newspapers
College newspapers
* ''The Battalion'' – Texas A&M University
* ''The Baylor Lariat'' – Baylor University
* The Brand' – Hardin-Simmons University
...
References
External links
''Statesman.com''*
''AhoraSi.com''''MyStatesman.com (subscription site)''''Austin360.com (entertainment site)''''Hookem.com -- for all things Longhorns''''Statesman on Facebook''''Statesman on Twitter''''StatesmanMedia.com (business site)''''StatesmanMediaPresents.com (B2B event site)''
{{Authority control
Gannett publications
Newspapers published in Austin, Texas
Publications established in 1871
1871 establishments in Texas
Daily newspapers published in Texas