Spokane Press

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Title info
   Digitization plan
   History
      NEH Approved Essay
      Essay Notes
   Research
Reel
   Notes
   Evaluation
      Totals


Title info


Digitization plan

2008-2010 grant
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History


NEH Approved Essay

The Spokane Press was founded in 1902 by the Edward Willis (E. W.) Scripps as part of his newspaper chain. He wrote that "the journalistic policy of the new paper...be that of advocate and special pleader of the poor classes as against the whole plutocratic and aristocratic cominations, political, economic, and social."1 Scripps himself did not oversee the day-to-day operations of the paper, but the Spokane Press fulfilled its mission of serving the working classes by supporting labor issues and maintaining its price at one penny per issue. The Scripps papers also appealed to their readership through illustrations and cartoons, short, humorous articles, and championship of causes such as public ownership of utilities.

Unlike its sister papers in western Washington (the Tacoma Times [LCCN: sn88085187] and Seattle Star [LCCN: sn2008253048], the Spokane Press did not prove to be profitable. Under most circumstances the paper would have closed immediately, but Scripps conceived of the Press as a "buttress" paper that strengthened the Seattle "pillar" paper by providing news from eastern Washington to the Seattle Star and other Scripps papers. It was therefore allowed to continue printing, subsidized by the Tacoma and Seattle papers.

In 1920 E.W. Scripps quarreled with his son James Scripps and the five Pacific Northwest Scripps newspapers were brought under the exclusive control of James. James died in 1921, leaving his widow Josephine to manage these papers, which were the core of the Scripps-Canfield League, (later called the Scripps League). They included the Los Angeles Record [LCCN: sn95061067], Seattle Star, Tacoma Times , and Portland News [LCCN: sn86063742].

Essay Notes

Big stories during this time period is the Jeffries-Johnson fight, women's suffrage.

Research

  1. N.W. Ayer & Son's American newspaper annual 1908 914
  2. NDNP Candidate Title List (Appendix A1.2)
  3. Chronicling America record (LOC) - Spokane Press
  4. WorldCat record - Spokane press
  5. WSL record - Spokane press
  6. UW record - Spokane press
  7. Scripps, E. W., & Knight, O. (1966). I protest; Selected disquisitions of E. W. Scripps. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
  8. Baldasty, G. J. (1999). E.W. Scripps and the business of newspapers. The history of communication. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
  9. Cochran, N. D. (1933). E.W. Scripps. New York: Harcourt, Brace and.
  10. Baldasty, G. (1999). NEWSPAPERS FOR THE 'WAGE EARNING CLASS': E. W. SCRIPPS AND THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 90(4), 171-181. Retrieved from America: History & Life database.
  11. Founding the "Spokane Press": E. W. Scripps and an Ambitious New Publisher Debated the Issues of Newspaper Journalism.

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Reel


Notes

e.g. Significant for its location on the U.S.-Canadian border - pearson, 2008/10/14 16:11

  • film eval notes 1904-05-21 1904-12-31: partial duplicate images are not recorded in the metadata


Evaluation

See Spokane press eval spreadsheets (SkyDrive)

Totals



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