Below you will find a BRIEF description of the evolution of some of the newspapers in Cincinnati from the very first in 1793 to 1958 and the combining of the Cincinnati Times-Star and the Cincinnati Post to form the Cincinnati Post & Times Star. The mastheads of the named newspapers are shown along with the description.
THE VOLKSBLATT
Not a postcard
The Volksblatt, started in 1836, was the most influential German-American newspaper in the Ohio Valley. You can see their building to the right in the postcard, on the left, of the Cincinnati Library on Vine Street above. The next image is another angle of these buildings. During the next year the following German newspapers were started: the Westlicher Merkur; The first German Catholic newspaper in the United States, Der Wahrheits freund; the German Lutheran, Der Protestant; the German Methodist, Der Christliche Apologete.
Masthead
Wahrheits Freund. 1837-1907
By 1910 the two major German newspapers, the Volksblatt and the Freie Presse, had a combined circulation of 110,000 due to the fact that around the turn of the century almost one half of the population was of German heritage. After WWII most German newspapers started to use the English language, many also began to use the newsletter format.
CINCINNATI DAILY GAZETTE
The above Gazette edition has the news of the death of President Lincoln and on the same page (follow the dotted line) advertises the play at Pike's Opera House starring the brother of the man who shot Lincoln, Junius Brutus Booth. The show was quietly closed and all signs removed, Booth carefully snuck out of town.
The Big Three
*
Newsboys
CINCINNATI TIMES STAR
800 Broadway
The Times Star was begun on June 15, 1880 with the merger of the Spirit of the Times (begun in 1840) and the Cincinnati Daily Star (1872). Charles Phelps Taft and his father-in-law, David Sinton (Sinton Hotel). Taft's nephew Hulbert Taft became the publisher after his uncle retired, he was succeeded by David Ingalls, grandson of Charles P. Taft and grandnephew of President William Howard Taft. The non-postcard image below is the Times-Star Building that was built in 1892 on the n.e.c. of 6th and Walnut.
6th & Walnut
In 1933 the 16 story building you see in the cards above was opened. The first six floors were the printing plant and the remainder were offices. In the 1950s Cincinnati's three afternoon papers were having financial problems, the big three needed to become two. The Tafts tried to buy the morning paper, the Enquirer, instead, the other afternoon paper the Post bought the Times-Star in July 1958. The Post then moved into the Times-Star building and began operation as The Cincinnati Post and Times-Star until January 1, 1974 when Times-Star vanished from the masthead.
CINCINNATI POST
The Post was first published on January 3, 1881 and
was called The Penny Paper (guess how much it cost). James Scripps joined the
paper and within two years he and his brother, Edward, took over and renamed the
paper The Evening Post. Operations were moved to Longworth Street (between 5th
& 6th Streets) and Elm, seen in the non-postcard image above. Scripps also
became interested in news service companies. He combined 3 small regional news
services in 1907 and created United Press, later United Press International
(UPI). The Scripps Howard companies bought into broadcasting and other
publishing interests. The Howard in the name came from Ron Howard the assistant
managing editor of the Post and president of UPI.
Financial problems with afternoon papers in the 1970s forced the
Post and the Enquirer to join their printing, circulation, and business
departments into one, but the two newsrooms and editorial departments were to
remain completely separate. The Post subsequently moved to offices on East Court
Street.
Of course the Cincinnati Post ceased operations at the end of 2007.
COMMERCIAL TRIBUNE
4th and
Race
The Commercial Tribune located at 4th and Race was absorbed by the Enquirer in 1930.
CINCINNATI ENQUIRER
One week after the death of President Harrison the Enquirer began publishing. Above is the front page of the very first edition of the Enquirer, 4/10/41.
Enquirer in 1903
With the demise of the Cincinnati Post in December
of 2007, the Cincinnati Enquirer is now "King of the Hill" all
competition has been eliminated. The image above is a non-postcard view of the
Cincinnati Enquirer as it looked in 1903. Started on April 10, 1841 the Enquirer
has published a Sunday edition longer than any paper in America. There are two other rather famous buildings in
this picture, next to the Enquirer on the left is Atlantic Gardens, a watering
hole for the sports fans of the city. There is more information on this saloon
on the Taverns Page. Next to the Atlantic Gardens is the Palace Hotel (now the
Cincinnatian) there is more information in the Hotels section of the Buildings
Page. Before the Palace was built there stood on the corner a tavern called the
Pacific Garden, with the Atlantic Garden a couple of doors north. Whenever a
parade was held along Vine Street every band would break into a rendition of
Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean when they reached a point midway between the two
bars.
The Enquirer, of
course, expanded several times over the years until it looked like what you
see in the two postcards below.
The Enquirer started when John and Charles Brough
purchased the Advertiser (1818) in 1841 and updated it. In 1848 the first Sunday
edition was published, one of the first American newspapers to do so. The Monday
edition was suspended because most people were opposed to working on the Sabbath
(the Monday edition used to be done on Saturday but that was when the Sunday
edition was now done). The Monday edition was resumed in 1866. The Enquirer had
just moved into the former quarters of the Wesleyan Female College on Vine
Street from its offices next to Pike's Opera House in 1866 when it burned down
taking the old Enquirer with it. Having moved most of its equipment the paper
only missed one edition. This is the building you see in the photograph taken in
1903 above. This structure was expanded several times until in the 1920s it
could not be enlarged any further so a new 14 story building was built, in the
next two years, around the old one so that there was very little
disruption to the paper's operation. It was completed in 1926 and the building
seen in the two cards above is the result. The first three floors contain the
newspapers operations while offices were on the remaining floors.
The Enquirer has gone thru many owners over the intervening
years, the last being William Kaufman Organization based in New York. The
building itself has gone thru a restoration and renovation process that has made
it economically successful while retaining its character.
