From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The News Journal
The July 27, 2005 front page of The News Journal
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	Gannett Company
Publisher	W. Curtis Riddle
Editor	David Ledford
Founded	1785 (as the Delaware Gazette)
Headquarters	950 West Basin Road New Castle, Delaware 19720  United States
Circulation	Morning: 114,435 Sunday: 131,796[1]
Website: delawareonline

The News Journal is a Wilmington, Delaware newspaper owned by Gannett. Like most American newspapers, it also makes an associated online version available.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Acquisition by Gannett 2 Coverage Area 3 Sections 3.1 Special Sections 4 Embracing of Technology 5 Increasing Youth Readership 6 Other Publications 7 Community Involvement 8 Notable Reporters 9 References 10 External links

For most of the 20th Century, the Du Pont family owned two Delaware newspapers, The Morning News and the Evening Journal. Ownership of both papers was consolidated in 1919 when feuding factions of the family reconciled, forming the News Journal Company.

DuPont decided to sell The News Journal Company in 1978. Gannett won the bidding war, beating the Hearst Corporation and The Washington Post Company. Gannett paid $60 million for the two Delaware papers and merged them in 1989 to form one paper, The News Journal. ^[2]

Based in New Castle, Delaware, The News Journal covers New Castle County most in-depth, but also offers considerable coverage of the rest of the state, including the Delaware General Assembly, and the Delaware beaches. The paper offers limited coverage of northeast Maryland and southeast Pennsylvania, mostly by means of short news briefs. The paper publishes national and international articles from wire services.

The News Journal also maintains a Washington, D.C. bureau, mainly for covering Delaware's congressmen.

• News
• Local & Business
• Sports
• Life
• Classifieds

• Business Monday
• Health (Tuesdays)
• Home and Garden (Thursdays) - replaces the Life section and includes comics and Dear Abby in a ddition to features on gardening and home design
• Crossroads (Thursdays) - contains news about schools and other local, human-interest features. High schools in Delaware each have pick a student to write a short report about the happenings at their school for Crossroads. In April 2007, The News Journal began reprinting articles from local high school newspapers in the Crossroads section.
• 55 Hours (Fridays) - movie reviews, food reviews, and info about events occurring in the 55 hours of the weekend (and beyond)
• Auto (Saturdays)
• Sunday Life
• Celebrations (first Sunday of each month) - weddings, engagement announcements, anniversaries, and birthdays

The News Journal Company entered the Internet age in the late 1990s with the launch of Delaware Online. The website features an online edition of all local content in the paper, as well as job listings and classified ads.

The paper began offering an online news update weekdays at 4:30 pm. The once-daily update has evolved into as-it-happens online news coverage that often results in a couple dozen news updates per day.

Delaware Online also offers a brief morning and afternoon online newscast with anchor Patty Petite. Billboards for Delaware Online encourage residents to "get their Delaware news from an anchor who actually lives in Delaware," alluding to Delaware's lack of a television station.

In order to increase its youth readership, The News Journal Company began publishing Spark, a weekly publication geared toward young adults. Spark, which focuses on concerts, movies, night life, and other entertainment, is distributed free at area businesses.

In the summer of 2007, The News Journal charged three summer interns with the task of finding a way to further increase youth readership. The result was Unami, media-rich website with short articles, some of which are original reports for Unami, and others which are condensed versions of articles that appeared in the News Journal. Unami, which gets its name from a Lenape (Delaware) Indian language, is described as "a user-friendly format, catering to the ‘skimmers’ as well as those who Google search every new concept they come across". ^[3]

Besides Spark, The News Journal Company is responsible for several other publications:

• Delaware Pets - Published monthly and distributed free at pet stores and veterinarian offices.
• Mid-state Living - Focuses on the area between Mddletown and Dover. Published twice a month and distributed free at local businesses.
• Delaware Parent - Published monthly and distributed by mail to subscribers for free.
• Delaware Woman - Published bi-monthly and distributed by mail to subscribers for free.

The News Journal has for several years participated in the Newspapers for Education, which provides free newspapers for area schools. On Fridays during the school year, the paper publishes an informational feature for school children, in the form of colorful, pull-out, double truck page in the Life section.

In 2006, The News Journal provided Glasgow High School with a $10,000 grant to assist the school's nespaper, The Dragon Fire. The News Journal also sent editors to Glasgow to assist the Dragon Fire with page layout and web design.

The News Journal Company also runs the Needy Family Fund, which partners with local charities to assist family in need of food and clothing. Each Christmas season, The News Journal asks readers to donate to the fund, and publishes a list of those who do.

Cris Barrish - His byline calls him a "Senior Reporter". Often assigned to The News Journal's biggest stories, Barrish is best known for his coverage of the murder of Ann Marie Fahey and the ensuing murder trial of Thomas Capano. Barrish later co-authored the book Fatal Embrace about the case.

Norman Lockman - Lockman served as managing editor of The News Journal from 1984 to 1991. ^[4] After that, he became a member of the editorial board and wrote a regular column in the paper. Before joining The News Journal, Lockman won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on race relations he co-wrote for the Boston Globe. ^[5]Suffering from Lou Gerhig's disease, Lockman wrote his final column in late 2004. He died the following April.

• Delaware Online

v • d • e Gannett Company Inc.
Corporate directors:   Craig A. Dubow (Chairman, President & CEO)   •   Full list of directors
United States national newspapers:   USA Today    •   USA Weekend    •   Sports Weekly
v • d • e Gannett Company regional daily newspapers in the United States The Advocate  • Argus Leader  • The Arizona Republic  • Asbury Park Press  • Asheville Citizen-Times  • Battle Creek Enquirer  • The Baxter Bulletin  • The Burlington Free Press  • Central Florida Future  • Chillicothe Gazette  • The Cincinnati Enquirer  • Chronicle-Tribune  • The Clarion-Ledger  • Coshocton Tribune  • The Courier-Journal  • Courier News  • The Courier-Post  • The Daily Journal  • The Daily News Journal  • Daily Record  • The Daily Times  • Daily World  • Democrat and Chronicle  • The Des Moines Register  • The Desert Sun  • Detroit Free Press  • El Paso Times  • Florida Today  • Fort Collins Coloradoan  • Fort Myers News-Press  • Great Falls Tribune  • Green Bay Press-Gazette  • The Greenville News  • Hattiesburg American  • Herald Times Reporter  • Home News Tribune  • The Honolulu Advertiser  • The Indianapolis Star  • Iowa City Press-Citizen  • The Ithaca Journal  • The Jackson Sun  • Journal & Courier  • The Journal News  • Lafayette Daily Advertiser  • Lancaster Eagle-Gazette  • Lansing State Journal  • The Leaf-Chronicle  • Mansfield News Journal  • The Marion Star  • Marshfield News-Herald  • Montgomery Advertiser  • Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat  • News Herald  • The News Leader  • The News Journal  • The News-Messenger  • The News-Star  • Ocean County Observer  • Oshkosh Northwestern  • Pacific Daily News  • Palladium-Item  • Pensacola News Journal  • The Post-Crescent  • Poughkeepsie Journal  • Press & Sun-Bulletin  • Public Opinion  • Reno Gazette-Journal  • The Reporter  • St. Cloud Times  • The Salinas Californian  • The Sheboygan Press  • The Shreveport Times  • The Spectrum  • Springfield News-Leader  • Star-Gazette  • The Star Press  • Statesman Journal  • Stevens Point Journal  • Telegraph-Forum  • The Tennessean  • Times Herald  • Times Recorder  • The Town Talk  • Tucson Citizen  • Tulare Advance-Register  • Visalia Times-Delta  • Wausau Daily Herald  • Windsor Beacon  • Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
v • d • e Gannett Company television stations in the United States ABC affiliates KXTV  •  WJXX  •  WZZM CBS affiliates KTHV  •  WFMY  •  WLTX  •  WMAZ  •  WTSP  •  WUSA NBC affiliates KARE  •  KNAZ1  •  KPNX  •  KSDK  •  KUSA  •  WBIR  •  WCSH  •  WGRZ  •  WKYC  •  WLBZ  •  WTLV  •  WXIA MyNetworkTV affiliates KTVD  •  WATL 1 Subject to sale once a buyer is found.
v • d • e Newsquest daily newspapers in the United Kingdom The Argus  • Bolton Evening News  • Bradford Telegraph & Argus  • Colchester Evening Gazette  • Daily Echo, Bournemouth  • Dorset Echo, Weymouth  • Echo, Basildon, [Essex]  • Evening Times  • The Herald, Glasgow  • Lancashire Telegraph  • Oxford Mail  • The Northern Echo  • The Press, York  • Southern Daily Echo, Southampton  • South Wales Argus  • Swindon Advertiser  • Worcester News
Other assets: 101.com  •  Army Times Publishing Company  •  Clipper Magazine  •  Gannett Foundation  •  Pointroll Inc.  •  Hawaii.com  •  Nursing Spectrum
Annual revenue: US$8.03 billion (2004)  •  Employees: 49,675  •  Stock Symbol: NYSE: GCI  •  Website: www.gannett.com