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 New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, 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 was published in a

tabloid Tabloid may refer to: * Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism * Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size ** Chinese tabloid * Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size * Sopwith Tabloid, a biplane aircraft * ''Ta ...

format until March 1, 2022, when it began being published like most other newspapers, in a

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...

format. The newspaper's news-gathering operations are largely decentralized, the result of its large geographic reach. Its news staff reports from three bureaus: * Middletown, covering Orange and Pike (Pa.) counties *

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

, covering Ulster County * Monticello, covering Sullivan County It came into being in the late 1950s when Middletown's two papers merged. 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.Whig) 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 Circulation may refer to: Science and technology * Atmospheric circulation, the large-scale movement of air * Circulation (physics), the path integral of the fluid velocity around a closed curve in a fluid flow field * Circulatory system, a bio ...

of 19,000 within three years but lost a lot of money in the process. Times Herald Record offices

In November 1959, James H. Ottaway Sr., 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

, 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''. On September 4, 2013,

News Corp News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The second incarnation of the News Corporation (1980–2013), original News Corporation, it was formed ...

announced that it would sell the Dow Jones Local Media Group to Newcastle Investment Corp.—an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, for $87 million. The newspapers will be operated by GateHouse Media, a newspaper group owned by Fortress. News Corp. CEO and former ''Wall Street Journal'' editor Robert James Thomson indicated that the newspapers were "not strategically consistent with the emerging portfolio" of the company. GateHouse in turn filed prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 27, 2013, to restructure its debt obligations in order to accommodate the acquisition.

Prominent employees

Avrom "Al" Romm (1926–1999), named city editor of the ''Daily Record'' in 1957, became the ''Times Herald-Record'' first managing editor 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 (born June 27, 1960) is an American author, editor, physicist and climate expert, who advocates reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming and increasing energy security through energy efficiency, green energy techno ...

. Malcolm Browne, who later won the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

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 Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, Marilyn Monroe, Tennessee Williams, and

Ben Hecht Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A successful journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplay ...

, 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 editors, later trained hundreds of student journalists at ''The Legislative Gazette'', a student-run newspaper covering state government in Albany operated jointly by SUNY campuses at New Paltz and Albany.

Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of '' Hell's Angels'' (1967), a book for which he s ...

, 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. After a year's hiatus in 2001, he became executive editor in 2002. 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 written is available online by archive A clip of Levine addressing his community is on YouTube. Mark Pittman (1957-2009), former Metro-Editor until 1997 when he left to work for Bloomberg News to break international headlines as a reporter who called the financial crisis of 2007. Glenn Ritt, former city editor in the late 1970s who went on to become editor of the Bergen Record.

References

External links

Official website
* {{Gannett Daily newspapers published in New York (state) Gannett publications Mass media in Orange County, New York Sullivan County, New York Middletown, Orange County, New York 1851 establishments in New York (state)