Ohio newspaper that battled injustice for 150 years to shut down: 'Scary for democracy'
Source: The Guardian
tt was in the late 1920s that the Ku Klux Klan regularly began gathering outside the home of William F Maag Jr in Youngstown. Maag owned the Vindicator newspaper, which unlike others in this once prosperous part of Ohio, had been willing to criticize the racist Klansmen.
Men on horseback, clad in white robes and hoods, would burn crosses and flaunt rifles and shotguns, in an attempt at intimidation. It didnt work. The men of the Maag family would stand outside their home, themselves armed, refusing to be cowed, as the Vindicator continued to expose government officials who were part of the Klan.
That defiance set the tone for decades of investigative, combative reporting from the Vindicator. The daily newspaper relentlessly reported on the mafia, the government, big business and even its own advertisers.
But no more. Soon after celebrating 150 years since its first edition came news that was devastating to many in Youngstown and the wider Mahoning valley. The Vindicator was shutting down at the end of August. For good.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/21/the-vindicator-ohio-newspaper-shut-down
MountainMama
(237 posts)One of the greatest newspaper names of all time, and a good one too.
Evolve Dammit
(16,632 posts)LisaM
(27,762 posts)We always subscribed to the paper - we subscribed to two papers before the Seattle PI (which was the better in-town paper) folded.
We stopped getting the newspaper when we moved to an apartment, because the apartment building doesn't have anywhere for it to be delivered. They had to leave it outside, it often got stolen, and the delivery itself became very spotty. Now, we buy a paper NYT once a week, which I relish going through and reading in hard copy. Where it differs for me - reading a print version - is that I encounter stories I'd probably never read if I was online, because I'd be unlikely to click on the links.
So part of the loss is that we're less well informed in general, and the other part is that we're probably less well rounded because we just ignore a large percentage of the online paper. With a print version, I read almost everything. Online, not so much.
renate
(13,776 posts)Even when my eyes were good, I hated reading the newspaper because there is NO way to do so comfortably. You have to hold your arms up, or lean over a table and squint at the top of the page because it 's so far away, blah blah blah.
Now we're all so spoiled by having phones that are lightweight and you don't have to do contortions to read them. And paying to read a newspaper online, when so much else is available for free, seems weird even though it is TOTALLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO.
If somehow newspapers could be redesigned to be more like fat magazines--which would be more expensive, admittedly--I wonder whether they could come back. Same cheap paper, and they wouldn't even need to be stapled. Just made smaller.
JohnnyRingo
(18,581 posts)This news is over a month old. Since then The Trib has stepped up and said they'd print a special edition newspaper just for Youngstown so that great city won't be without a daily paper, also to make money. The Tribune is my local newspaper, and albeit, they have a more conservative editorial page, but they cover all news.
They also bought the Vindy's website and promise local content.
Tribune Chronicle acquires rights to Vindicator name
Will print edition for Mahoning County starting Sept. 1
WARREN The Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator have reached an agreement so current readers of The Vindicator will continue to receive a daily newspaper. A new Vindicator edition of the Tribune Chronicle will be launched Sept. 1 and delivered to all The Vindicators subscribers.
Mark Brown, general manager of The Vindicator, announced Friday that the Tribune Chronicle will acquire rights to The Vindicator name, its list of subscribers and the Vindy.com internet domain.
The agreement clears the way for the Tribune Chronicle to produce an edition under the name of The Vindicator. The Tribune Chronicle will provide a newspaper for the remainder of the unexpired term of all subscribers of The Vindicator. Readers of The Vindicator will then have the option to renew their subscriptions.
The owners of The Vindicator announced July 5 the newspaper, which recently celebrated its 150th anniversary, would cease publication Aug. 31. The Tribune Chronicle announced July 16 that it would attempt to fill the void left by the closure of The Vindicator by publishing a Mahoning County edition beginning Sept. 1.
We have always felt strongly about the need to have a local newspaper. The agreement announced today provides The Vindicators subscribers with continued delivery of a daily print newspaper focused on their communities, Mahoning County and the Valley, Brown said. We are very happy to be able to provide our readers with a daily print newspaper from a family-owned company. The Nutting family and Ogden Newspapers have been in the publishing business since 1890.
We are extremely pleased and honored to be able to preserve the long-respected name of the newspaper that has served this region for a century-and-a-half, said Charles Jarvis, publisher of the Tribune Chronicle. We look forward to delivering a newspaper to the homes of all current subscribers of The Vindicator. The new edition also will be available at even more stores and newspaper racks in Mahoning County.
Jarvis said the Tribune Chronicle will publish two editions. The current subscribers of the Tribune Chronicle will see little change in their newspaper.
The Vindicator subscribers will receive an edition with content that more directly relates to Mahoning County and the Mahoning Valley region. Obituaries that would have been published only in The Vindicator will appear only in the new Vindicator edition.
Immediately upon The Vindicators announcing it would cease publication, this community raised up to express its concern about its possible loss of access to a newspaper, Jarvis said. Many realized that a newspaper journalizes the everyday happenings of its city and region and losing that would be a tremendous loss.
Readers want their neighborhood news, and more than ever todays readers want the news of the region. People are driving a bit further for jobs, and families have spread out. Were looking forward to serving the region with the hard news, community news, entertainment news and the best local sports coverage, Jarvis said.
Since the announcement of the closure of The Vindicator, the Tribune Chronicle has been planning increased coverage of Mahoning County and has added considerable resources to get that done. The Vindicator edition will be the areas best source for Mahoning Valley news and will offer a strong advertising medium to support the businesses that drive the regions economy. Advertisers will have the option to place ads in either or both editions.
Many of The Vindicators features, including all of the daily comics and most of the Sunday comics, will be included in The Vindicator edition.
The Tri-County Funeral Directors Association members who have traditionally published obituaries in The Vindicator are planning to use The Vindicator edition of the Tribune Chronicle for their obituary tributes. Local and state governmental agencies have indicated they will use The Vindicator edition to publish their legal advertisements.
Together the Trumbull and the Mahoning editions of the Tribune Chronicle will provide advertisers with a combined reach of more than 50,000 households.
We are committed to publishing a newspaper for Mahoning County that will give the community a strong voice, Jarvis said. While we could never fully replace the great work done by The Vindicators publisher, management and staff, we believe we will produce a really good newspaper one the community can be proud of.
The Tribune Chronicle plans to contract with as many current Vindicator carriers as possible in order to provide a seamless transition on Sept. 1.
Jarvis stressed this whole process is on a very fast track and the Sept. 1 transition may not be as smooth as hoped.
If there are some missed deliveries in the first few days, we hope the subscribers will let us know and give us the opportunity to fix the problems, he said. We have always been committed to excellent customer service.
Hundreds of people have already reached out to the Tribune Chronicle to subscribe to the announced Mahoning County edition. If those who have subscribed are current Vindicator subscribers, the Tribune Chronicle will extend the expiration date of subscriptions.
Demsrule86
(68,352 posts)no voice in northern Ohio save in Cleveland for our side.
JohnnyRingo
(18,581 posts)But as a lifetime reader I can say the bias ends at the editorial page, and even then I read Robert Reich's weekly column there. Indeed, I often see national news articles that include a statement admonishing the president for lies and incompetence. Even local stories seem fair & balanced, so to speak. It appears reporters are given free reign to write their story.
Having the Tribune step in is better than the consequences of losing a print edition of a newspaper in a metropolitan area. I give them credit.
AllaN01Bear
(17,383 posts)important to loose , espically in this day and age .