The ''Portland Reporter'' was a newspaper published in Portland, Oregon, United States in the early 1960s. It was founded by unions, which were calling on Portlanders to cancel their subscriptions to the city's two existing daily newspapers, as a weekly paper. Within a year, with support from various local and national unions, it had begun daily publication. It ceased publication upon the conclusion of the strike. It was reported to be the first daily newspaper established in a major metropolitan area of the U.S. Pacific Northwest in at least 50 years.

Origin in newspaper labor dispute

In 1948 the ''Oregonian'' vacated

the Oregonian Building The Oregonian Building was a building in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States, which served as the headquarters of Portland's major newspaper, '' The Oregonian'', from 1892 to 1948. It was the first steel-framed building constructed in the W ...

, its home of more than 50 years, and put itself in financial distress in the construction of its new building; this resulted in the sale of the newspaper to S. I. Newhouse in 1950. What was to become heated four-year strike began against both '' The Oregonian'' and '' The Oregon Journal'' began in November 1959. The strike was called by Stereotypers Local 49 over various contract issues, particularly the introduction of more automated plate-casting machinery; the new-to-American-publishing German-made equipment required one operator instead of the four that operated the existing equipment.

Wallace Turner Wallace Turner (March 15, 1921 – September 18, 2010) was an American journalist and government administrator. A native of Florida, he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1957 while working for ''The Oregonian'' in Portland, Oregon. Turner later worked i ...

and other writers and photographers refused to cross the picket lines and never returned.

Impact

The competition and the labor shortage made publication difficult, but not impossible, for the older papers. The ''Oregonian'' and the ''Journal'' published a "joint, typo-marred paper" for six months until they had hired enough nonunion help to resume separate operations. Newhouse bought the '' Oregon Journal'' in 1961. Production and business operations of the two newspapers were consolidated in ''The Oregonian'' building, while their editorial staffs remained separate. The ''Journal'' continued as a separate publication (though its Sunday edition ceased) until 1982, when Newhouse merged it with the ''Oregonian''. The ''Reporter's'' circulation peaked at 78,000. The National Labor Relations Board ruled the strike illegal in November 1963. Strikers continued to picket until April 4, 1965, at which point the ''Oregonian'' and the ''Journal'' became open shops. The ''Reporter'' shut down in October 1964.

References

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External links

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89048622/portland-reporter-odd-detail/ Defunct newspapers published in Oregon 1960 establishments in Oregon 1963 disestablishments in Oregon Labor disputes in Oregon Daily newspapers published in the United States Weekly newspapers published in the United States