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The ''South Bend Tribune'' is a daily newspaper and news website which is based in
South Bend, Indiana South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 United S ...
. It is distributed in
South Bend South Bend is a city in and the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total of 103,453 residents and is the fourt ...
,
Mishawaka Mishawaka is a city on the St. Joseph River, in Penn Township, St. Joseph County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 51,063 as of the 2020 census. Its nickname is "the Princess City". Mishawaka is a principal city of the South Be ...
, north central Indiana, and southwestern Michigan. It has been named as a "Blue Ribbon Newspaper" (2006, 2016 and 2018) by the Hoosier State Press Association. It is the third largest daily broadsheet newspaper in the state of
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
by circulation. The Tribune was locally and family owned by
Schurz Communications Schurz Communications is a South Bend, Indiana-based broadband media group and cloud services provider. It owned newspapers. History The company was founded in 1872 by Alfred B. Miller and Elmer Crockett with the creation of the ''South Bend ...
and based in Mishawaka, for more than 146 years, from its founding in 1872 until 2019. Five generations of the family owned and operated the newspaper until The Tribune was sold to GateHouse Media on Feb. 1, 2019. In November 2019, GateHouse Media completed the purchase of the
Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
Technology Center, 501 W. South St. in downtown South Bend, although most employees worked remotely during 2020 and early 2021 because of the
coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...
pandemic. In August 2020, the South Bend Tribune moved into its new home in a former Studebaker Corp. assembly plant at 635 S. Lafayette Blvd. that is being renovated by entrepreneur Kevin Smith as part of South Bend'
Renaissance District
The newspaper is printed at the Burnham Production Facility in
Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
. Because the
University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...
is in South Bend, The Tribune receives large readership because of its Notre Dame
news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...
and
sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...
coverage. The Tribune also operates the Notre Dame sports website: "ND Insider." Alan Achkar is the executive editor.


History


Early Years

Alfred B. ("Al" or "Alf") Miller and Elmer Crockett,
Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...
veterans of the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
founded The Tribune in 1872 in South Bend, a manufacturing center on the St. Joseph River in northern Indiana. The Tribune was founded as a Republican newspaper. Miller and Crockett had worked together earlier at the ''St. Joseph County Register'', a weekly newspaper based in South Bend that was owned by
Schuyler Colfax Schuyler Colfax Jr. (; March 23, 1823 – January 13, 1885) was an American journalist, businessman, and politician who served as the 17th vice president of the United States from 1869 to 1873, and prior to that as the 25th speaker of the Hous ...
, who served as
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, commonly known as the speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U ...
during the Civil War and then as
vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
under
Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
. Miller was skilled in editing and writing, and Crockett was a mechanical man who handled the presses. The two were brothers-in-law; in 1868 Crockett married Miller's sister, Anna. The first four-page edition of The Tribune was published on a Saturday evening, March 9, 1872. The Tribune's original printing offices were at 73 and 75 West Washington St. in downtown South Bend. Two other men from the ''Register'' held minor partnership roles in The Tribune at the start, but left within a few years: James H. Banning, a printer, and Elias W. Hoover, a wood engraver. In an editorial in the first edition, the editors wrote: "We know that in our four or five years' experience in the newspaper business in this city, its reading population has increased nearly one half, that the county has grown accordingly and that there is room for a journal like The Tribune, even more than there was room for two papers a dozen years ago. No city in the state is growing so rapidly as South Bend ..." The two men operated The Tribune together until Miller's death in 1892. The Tribune operated a book, stationery and art supply store in conjunction with the newspaper until 1902.


F.A. Miller

Frederick A. Miller
Alfred B. Miller's son, at age 24, became the Tribune's editor upon his father's death. The young Miller had started his career as a boy, learning to set type and carrying a route for the Tribune at age 12 in 1880, earning a 13 cent profit on the first day. He had graduated from South Bend High School in 1887 and on July 3 of that year joined his father's editorial staff. F.A. Miller served as editor and publisher of The Tribune from 1892 until his death at age 86 on Nov. 29, 1954. In a political philosophy inherited from his Civil War veteran father, F.A. Miller "ran The Tribune as a straight forward Republican organ. Unless a Republican candidate was an atrocious choice, or tied to an organization that Miller found obnoxious, such as the Ku Klux Klan, he could count upon The Tribune's endorsement," The Tribune reported of Miller in its March 9, 1972 centennial edition. Miller's editorial battles on the local scene were intense, especially against city administrations he regarded as corrupt, which tended to be Democratic. "In 1928 he conducted full scale war against the regime of Mayor Chester R. Montgomery, whom The Tribune accused of harboring gambling, liquor violations and prostitution," The Tribune reported in its centennial edition. Montgomery, fighting back, published a 76-page booklet as an open letter to the people of South Bend, titled "The Tribune F.A. Miller Menace." F.A. Miller hated mistakes in print. For years, there was a sign painted in large block letters on the newsroom wall, placed there by his orders, stating: "Be Accurate." He was exceedingly particular about the spelling of names, including the use of correct middle initials. Miller was a non-smoker and banned smoking at The Tribune, but did not object to other forms of tobacco use. He also objected to alcohol use and banned all forms of its advertising in The Tribune and WSBT and WSBT-TV, radio and televisions stations owned by The Tribune. Miller worked closely with Crockett, his father's original partner, until Crockett's death on June 3, 1924 at age 79. Miller received a
honorary degree
from the University of Notre Dame in 1950. In April 1921, The Tribune moved to a newly built headquarters at 225 W. Colfax Ave. (the newspaper's fourth location since its founding), a building that would be expanded several times and serve as the newspaper's home base for 98 years. One of the first women reporters to earn a byline in the South Bend Tribune was Dorothea Kahn, a graduate of South Bend High School and the University of Chicago. She wrote a bylined feature story as a "girl reporter" about the Nov. 4, 1922 Notre Dame vs. Indiana University football game. In May 1923, Kahn wrote a bylined, multi-part series about the "fast lives boys and girls of high school age are leading in South Bend" based on interviews with dozens of local youths. Kahn also served as the editor of the Tribune's women's pages and helped with the launch of the Tribune's radio station. By 1924, Kahn was a reporter on the Chicago staff of the
Christian Science Monitor Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
and later had a long career in that newspaper's Boston office. In 1921, the South Bend Tribune founded and began broadcasting from its own radio station. The station had the call letter
WGAZ
(for "Greatest Automotive Zone," a nod to the Studebaker vehicle company). The call letters later were changed to WSBT. The radio station's first studio was on the stage in the third-floor auditorium of The Tribune building.


Franklin Schurz Sr.

F.A. Miller and his wife had no children. When F.A. Miller died in 1954, his nephew, Franklin D. Schurz Sr., became The Tribune's publisher. Schurz already had worked for The Tribune company for nearly 30 years, primarily as the secretary-treasurer and business manager, because his training was as an accountant. Franklin D. Schurz was the first head of The Tribune to carry the formal title of publisher. Born in South Bend on March 8, 1898, the son of Mr. and Mrs. John G. Schurz, Franklin Schurz Sr. lived in the city for most of his life. After graduating from South Bend High School in 1916, Schurz earned a bachelor's degree and a master's of business administration degree from Harvard University, with a break for service in the U.S. Army during World War I. A popular legend has it that Franklin Schurz Sr., the publisher and a nephew of Alfred Miller, took
polka Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas. History Etymology The term ...
lessons, then sponsored weekly polka nights on South Bend's Polish west side. The social events were a huge hit and helped establish inroads for the newspaper in the
immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
community. Such community outreach and the newspaper's aggressive reporting helped push the ''Tribune'' past the other remaining daily newspaper in town, the South Bend News-Times. The News-Times published its last edition on December 27, 1938.
Franklin Schurz Sr.
(1898-1987) served as editor and publisher of the ''Tribune'' through its periods of highest growth. With his prominent place in the business community, he helped chart a new direction for the local economy after Studebaker closed in 1963 and other factories scaled back production. Schurz Sr. was born in South Bend and graduated from South Bend High School and Harvard University. He worked briefly for the Food Research Institute at Stanford University and earned his CPA in California before returning to South Bend in 1924 to work with his father in an accounting firm. His uncle, F.A. Miller, convinced Schurz to join the Tribune in 1925. Over the next 30 years, Miller trained Schurz in virtually every aspect of the newspaper's operations. In the late 1920s, it was Schurz’s idea to focus on the area’s west side to boost readership. Schurz served as business manager of the Tribune, station manager of WSBT Radio and, finally, as editor and publisher of the Tribune from 1954 to 1972. He was instrumental in moving the company into television with
WSBT-TV WSBT-TV (channel 22) is a television station in South Bend, Indiana, United States, affiliated with CBS and Fox. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station maintains studios on East Douglas Avenue in Mishawaka, and its transmitter is loc ...
, the nation’s oldest UHF station, which first broadcast on December 21, 1952. During the 1960s and 1970s, he led the company in acquiring additional newspapers and television stations, extending the ''Tribune'' properties coast to coast. In the ''Tribune'' organization he held the offices of vice president (1929-46), secretary and treasurer (1946-57), president (1957-75), and chairman of the board (1975-76). In 1976, he became chairman of the board of the newly constructed organization, Schurz Communications Inc. He received a
honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame
in 1972. His son, Franklin Schurz Jr., succeeded him as the editor and publisher of the Tribune. Schurz Jr. joined the newspaper as an executive assistant in 1956, and later served as secretary, director, associate publisher, editor, publisher, executive vice president and president between 1972 and 1982, before the company's name changed to Schurz Communications. In December 1963, Tribune reporter Jac
Colwell
broke the story that the Studebaker Corp. auto company would shut down its factory in South Bend that month. The plant's shuttering left 7,000 employees without work and was among the biggest blows ever to the city's economy. Studebaker had started as a blacksmith and wagon production shop in South Bend in 1852. During the 1960s and 1970s, when the
Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Divisi ...
football teams were among the nation's elite, sports editor Joe Doyle was a close confidant of coach
Ara Parseghian Ara Raoul Parseghian (; hy, Արա Ռաուլ Պարսեղյան; May 21, 1923 – August 2, 2017) was an American football player and coach who guided the University of Notre Dame to national championships in 1966 and 1973. He is noted for br ...
. Forrest "Woody" Miller covered Irish men's basketball for decades, including the teams led by coach
Digger Phelps Richard Frederick "Digger" Phelps (born July 4, 1941) is an American former college basketball coach, most notably of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from 1971 to 1991. For 20 years, from 1993 to 2014, he served as an analyst on ESPN. He got the n ...
. Descendants of the founders served as editor and publisher for many years. Franklin Schurz Jr. succeeded his father after the ''Tribunes centennial in 1972; a recent past editor and publisher, the late David Ray, was a great-grandson of Elmer Crockett. The Tribune has had a newsroom internship program since about 1960. The internship program was started by longtime Tribune managing edito
John J. "Jack" Powers
a University of Notre Dame graduate. A native of
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York Powers graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1952 and started working for The Tribune the same year. At age 29, he was named the Tribune's managing editor, a position he held for 27 years before becoming executive editor and editorial writer. Former South Bend Tribune reporting interns include
David Haugh David Haugh (born May 22, 1968) is an American columnist, radio, and television personality. Haugh worked with the Chicago Tribune from 2002 to 2020, serving as the primary Chicago Bears columnist since 2009. In July 2018, Haugh replaced Brian Ha ...
, a Chicago journalist and sports radio host; Madeline Buckley, a news reporter for the Chicago Tribune
Pervaiz Shallwani
senior editor of investigative/enterprise reporting at CNN; Daniel Cooreman, later a senior staff editor in the financial news department and Sunday Business section chief at the New York Times

a sports writer at the Chicago Tribune; Mark Massa, an Indiana Supreme Court justice; and Paul C. Tash, chairman and CEO of the (Tampa Bay) Times Publishing Co. and chair of the Poynter Center for Media Studies' board of trustees.


Recent Years

The Tribune in June 2017 shut down its presses and moved production to a newspaper facility in Walker, Michigan, and its printing location later moved to Indianapolis then Milwaukee. The Tribune reached a peak of more than 130,000 Sunday readers in the 1970s. By 2015, the Tribune's circulation had fallen to 44,951. The ''Tribune'' in recent years has placed great emphasis on breaking news on its website and reaching more readers through new web-based products and specialty magazines. In 2019, the paper was sold by
Schurz Communications Schurz Communications is a South Bend, Indiana-based broadband media group and cloud services provider. It owned newspapers. History The company was founded in 1872 by Alfred B. Miller and Elmer Crockett with the creation of the ''South Bend ...
along with the rest of its publishing division to GateHouse Media. President and CEO of Schurz Communications Todd F. Schurz wrote a column about the sale. In late 2019, Gatehouse Media purchased Gannett, and the merged companies adopted the
Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.shifted its printing
to a Gannett facility in Indianapolis. In early 2021, The Tribune began printing in a Gannett facility in Milwaukee; it no longer prints in Indianapolis.


Other publications

The ''Tribunes online publications:
southbendtribune.com

ndinsider.com


References


External links


''South Bend Tribune'' WebsiteMobile
{{Gannett Newspapers published in Indiana Companies based in St. Joseph County, Indiana Mass media in South Bend, Indiana Gannett publications 1872 establishments in Indiana