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Page Revision: 2010/02/08 09:20

Table of Contents [Hide/Show] Title info    Digitization plan    History    Essay Draft    Research Reel    Notes    Evaluation       Totals

Title info¶

• Ayer Annual¹
  • Publish day: daily except Sunday
  • Content: Independent
  • Established: 1899
  • Pages: 4
  • Size: 20x24 inches
  • Size: 18 x22 inches ²
  • Editor: E.H. Wells
  • Publisher: Star Publishing Company
• Frequency: Daily, Evenings, except Sunday
• Coverage
  • Region:
  • County:
• Unique ids
  • SN: sn87093407
  • OCLC: ocm17285351
    

Digitization plan¶

2010-2012 grant

• Plan to digitize 1911-1922 (41 reels)
  

2008-2010 grant

• Digitizing 1899-1910 (22 reels)
  

History¶

• Continues: NA
• Continued by: NA
• WSL publish history chart:
  

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Essay Draft¶

E. W. (Edwin Willis) Scripps, newspaper businessman, once wrote "the best community in which to found a newspaper is one that is comparatively young and whose population has in very recent time increased." ¹. With a population of 40,000 and growing, Seattle, Washington in 1899 fit Scripps'description well. Scripps hired editor E. H. Wells to found his latest venture, the Seattle Star, on February 2, 1899.

Scripps papers generally supported the principle of public ownership. The Star was a strong advocate of a 1902 ballot initiative to allow the city to generate its own power, for instance.² When editor Wells proposed starting a newspaper in Tacoma (Washington), Scripps proposed borrowing money for the venture from employees. The notes promised to pay 6 per cent interest for two years. This idea grew into the Newspaper Saving Society and the First Investment Company, forms of employee ownership of the company.³

E. W. Scripps thought that advertising had a corrupting effect on journalism. In 1903 the Bon Marché department store stopped advertising in the Star because the editorial staff refused to suppress unfavorable articles about the store. When business manager E. F. Chase told Scripps that he regretted losing the contract, Scripps congratulated him for losing it. To reduce the papers reliance on advertising, Scripps papers focused on increasing circulation and limiting advertising space in order to inflate the value of that space. ⁴

Though Scripps generally took a hands-off approach to the daily management of his papers, he conceived of his business as a service to the working people. Occasionally his editorial staff would drift from the central mission of supporting the interests of labor and the poor, and Scripps felt the need to intervene. For instance, when editor B. H. Canfield opposed the Seattle General Strike of 1919, Scripps wrote a heated "disquisition" in return. This disquisition has been published as "Ingratitude?" in I protest; Selected disquisitions of E. W. Scripps, edited by Oliver Knight, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966.

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], Tacoma Times [LCCN: sn88085187], Spokane Press [LCCN: sn88085947], and Portland News [LCCN: sn86063742].

Research¶

1. N.W. Ayer & Son's American newspaper annual 1903 page 885
2. N.W. Ayer & Son's American newspaper annual 1908 page 913
3. NDNP Candidate Title List (Appendix A1.2)
4. Chronicling America record (LOC) - Seattle Star
5. WorldCat record - Seattle star
6. WSL record - fill in title
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.
    

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Reel¶

• Filmed by: UW
• Positives held by: UW
• Negatives held by: UW
• Holdings
  • UW Microfilm A2202
    

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Notes¶

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Evaluation¶

See Seattle star eval spreadsheets (Google)

Totals¶

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