''The Shreveport Journal'' was an American newspaper originally published by H. P. Benton in
Shreveport and
Bossier City
Bossier City ( ) is a city in Bossier Parish in the northwestern region of the U.S. state of Louisiana in the United States. It is the second most populous city in the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan statistical area. In 2020, it had a ...
in northwestern
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
.
In operation from at least 1897, it ceased publication in 1991.
History
The name ''The Journal'' was adopted on February 17, 1897. Previously the publication had been known for several years as ''The Judge''. William E. Hamilton, another of several early owners, obtained the newspaper about 1900 and held it until 1911, when it was acquired by the Journal Publishing Company, with A. J. Frantz as the president and Douglas F. Attaway Sr. as secretary. By 1918, Attaway had acquired controlling interest; in 1925, he became the president and publisher. Upon the senior Attaway's death in 1957, his son,
Douglas F. "Doug" Attaway Jr., succeeded his father as both the president and publisher.
Attaway graduated with a journalism degree from the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...
in
Columbia. From 1966 to 1979, he was also the chairman of the board of
KSLA-TV
KSLA (channel 12) is a television station in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power, Class A Telemundo affiliate KTSH-CD (channel 19). The two stations share studios on Fa ...
, the
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
affiliate established in 1954 and the first television outlet in Shreveport. Attaway sold KSLA to
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to:
* Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate
* Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom
* Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
. He was also a former chairman of the board of Newspaper Production Company and the Attaway Newspaper Group, Inc.
In 1972, Attaway wrote an article on a total eclipse, the phenomenon in which the moon totally blocks the rays of the sun, which occurred on July 10 of that year. Attaway and his long-term photo editor, Jack Barham, journeyed to New York City to observe the two-minute eclipse, having found their desirable spot of view under the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ( ) is a suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed New York Harbor with Lower New York Bay and t ...
.
In 1974, Attaway recruited
Stanley R. Tiner
Stanley may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Film and television
* ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film
* ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy
* ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short
* ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...
from the rival ''
Shreveport Times
''The Times'' is a Gannett daily newspaper based in Shreveport, Louisiana. Its distribution area includes 12 parishes in Northwest Louisiana and three counties in East Texas. Its coverage focuses on issues affecting the Shreveport-Bossier market, ...
'' to become the editor of ''The Journal''. A
Webster Parish
Webster Parish (French: ''Paroisse de Webster'') is a parish located in the northwestern section of the U.S. state of Louisiana.
The seat of the parish is Minden.
As of the 2010 census, the Webster Parish population was 41,207. In 2018, the p ...
native reared in Shreveport, Tiner graduated with a journalism degree from
Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activ ...
. In 1976, Attaway sold ''The Journal'' to the Shreveport industrialist and philanthropist
Charles T. Beaird, who had served in the late 1950s as a
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
for one term on the former
Caddo Parish Police Jury
In the U.S. state of Louisiana, the typical governing body of the parish is called the Police Jury (French: ''le Jury de Police''). Not every parish is governed by a Police Jury, but 38 of the 64 parishes use this system.
The Police Jury is the ...
. Tiner and Beaird moved the editorial position of ''The Journal'' to the political left, whereas it had been clearly
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
and earlier
segregationist
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Interna ...
under Attaway and a previous editor,
George W. Shannon.
["Tiner announces candidacy for post representing District 4", '']Minden Press-Herald
Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the greatest town between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district (''Kreis'') of Minden-Lübbecke, which is part of the region of Det ...
'', December 15, 1987, p. 10
''The Times'' and ''The Journal'' once shared a building at 222 Lake Street, although they were separately owned and editorially independent. ''The Times'' remains at the Lake Street location, but has moved operations to an adjacent building in recent years.
Closure in 1991
On January 29, 1991, Beaird announced that ''The Journal'' would terminate its daily operations two months later on March 30. The publication had steadily lost circulation and hence critical advertising revenues during the preceding decade. Readership dropped from a peak of nearly 40,000 to barely 16,000. "There just comes a time when it becomes uneconomical to go on. It was a very tough, sad decision," Beaird said.
["Shreveport Journal ends publication after 96 years", ''Minden Press-Herald'', March 31, 1991, p. 1]
Though ''The Journal'' had closed as a daily paper in 1991, Beaird contracted an agreement with ''The Times'' to carry on its
op-ed page
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. ...
called "Journal Page", which permitted continuing editorial comment approved by Beaird and managed by his editor, Jim Montgomery (1945–2013), also a native of Webster Parish. The "Journal Page" finally ended its run on December 31, 1999.
[
Under Beaird, ''The Journal'' won several important prizes, including the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Coverage of the Disadvantaged by the ]National Conference of Christians and Jews
The National Conference for Community and Justice is an American social justice organization focused on fighting biases and promoting understanding between people of different races and cultures.
The organization was founded in 1927 as the Natio ...
, the Mass Media Gold Medallion for stories on African American history, and the Scripps-Howard
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
National Journalism Awards for Editorial Writing.[ "Journal Page" was a finalist in 1994 for a ]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 ...
in Editorial Writing for a series on decriminalization of narcotics. Years later in 2006, Stanley Tiner's staff at ''The Sun Herald
The ''Sun Herald'' is a U.S. newspaper based in Biloxi, Mississippi, that serves readers along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The paper's current executive editor and general manager is Blake Kaplan and its headquarters is in the city of Gulfport ...
'' in Biloxi-Gulfport, Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
, won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service
The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalis ...
for its reporting of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
the previous year.
Notable people
In addition to the aforementioned George Shannon, Stanley Tiner, and Jack Barham, other notable ''Journal'' staffers include:
*Craig Flournoy
John Craig Flournoy (born June 26, 1951 in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA) is a journalism professor at the University of Cincinnati and a former investigative reporter for ''The Dallas Morning News'', at which his work included coverage of the latt ...
, reporter in the 1970s, later won a Pulitzer Prize at The Dallas Morning News; currently a journalism professor at the University of Cincinnati
* Bill Keith, former city editor
A city editor is a title used by a particular section editor of a newspaper. They are responsible for the daily changes of a particular issue of a newspaper that will be released in the coming day. Mostly they stay at the publication at night and t ...
, later ''Shreveport Times'' investigative reporter, and member of the Louisiana State Senate
* Robert "Bob" Mann, reporter (early 1980s); currently holds the Douglas Manship Chair of Journalism at LSU in Baton Rouge; inductee of the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame The Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame is a museum and hall of fame located in Winnfield, Louisiana. Created by a 1987 act of the Louisiana State Legislature, it honors the best-known politicians and political journalists in the state.
H ...
* Rupert Peyton, city editor of ''The Journal'' from 1925 to 1940; former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives; strongly anti-Long
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
politician[William McCleary, "Remembering Rupert Peyton (1899–1982) Journalist and State Representative'', '']North Louisiana History
''North Louisiana History'' is an academic journal published twice annually in Shreveport, Louisiana by the North Louisiana Historical Association (NLHA).
History
The origin of ''North Louisiana History'' parallels the history of the NLHA it ...
'', Vol. 40, No. 1 (Winter 2009), p. 22
References
{{Shreveport, Louisiana
Defunct newspapers published in Louisiana
Newspapers published in Louisiana
Publications established in 1897
Publications disestablished in 1991
Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Mass media in Shreveport, Louisiana