- Media - Janesville Sesquicentennial
-
- [Photograph; caption reads: Carrier boys for The Janesville
Gazette gathered for a photo about 1945 before heading out on
their routes.]
-
- Newspapers have recorded history of city
- Nearly 60 newspapers have hit the streets since Janesville
was settled in 1835, but only one has
- survived.
- The Janesville Gazette, founded in 1845 by a New Hampshire
school teacher, has been equal to
- the challenges of its competitors over the decades. The
Daily Recorder, The Bee, The News, The Democrat,
The Weekly Times - all battled the Gazette for
advertising dollars and circulation numbers, only to lose and
fade like yellowed newsprint into the annals of city history.
- The Daily Recorder, established in March 1878 as a
daily edition of the Rock County Recorder,
- probably mounted the stiffest challenge. It merged with the
Janesville City Times in April 1886 and became the Janesville
Recorder and Times, but it fell victim to The Gazette's
grip on Janesville about 1910.
- Levi ALDEN, aided by printer E. A. STODDARD,
published the first Gazette on Aug. 14,
- 1845. Several Janesville newspapers had been published before
the Gazette, but all faltered quickly. Its 140 years rank The
Gazette as Wisconsin's third oldest newspaper, with only
the Milwaukee Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal
boasting longer histories.
- ALDEN was lured to Janesville from Claremont, N.H.,
by his brother, a brick-maker who had
- established his home here in 1844. ALDEN arrived ahead
of his printing press, which was shipped through the Great Lakes
before traveling from Milwaukee to Janesville by ox cart.
- Janesville was a settlement of but 800 people when the first
weekly Gazette rolled off ALDEN's
- Washington hand press in his corner office in the LAPPIN
Block at 1 E. Milwaukee. No copies of that first four-page edition
were saved, but the second edition contained a prospectus stating,
in part: "The main feature of our paper will be political,
though we shall afford liberal departments to agriculture, literary
and miscellaneous articles."
- The first two issues were published on Thursdays, but the
paper then moved to Saturday publica-
- tion. Its political alignment was Whig, later to become Republican.
Circulation was 200.
- An annual subscription to the Gazette cost $2 in 1845
and advertising sold for 50 cents a column
- inch. ALDEN and STODDARD managed all aspects
of the young newspaper, including news, advertising, typesetting,
printing and distribution.
- News in the early days was largely local, and the national
stories that did make the Gazette's pages
- were often days or weeks old. It was two weeks after the
fall of Mexico City in 1848 before the Gazette carried
news of the surrender.
- One of the paper's first sensational local stories - and
its first "Extra" - described the lynching of
- David MAYBERRY in Courthouse Park on July 12, 1855.
More than two columns were devoted to the event, along with the
account of MAYBERRY's trial for the murder and robbery
of Andrew ALGER of Jefferson.
- STODDARD left the partnership shortly after the Gazette
was founded, and various people
- teamed with ALDEN before Charles HOLT bought
an interest in 1847. ALDEN eventually sold out to HOLT,
who became sole proprietor.
- HOLT, described as "a man of resource and action,"
led the paper into daily publication in 1857
- after buying the Janesville Free Press and merging
it with the Gazette. The Janesville Morning Gazette first
was published on March 9, 1857, and the newspaper has published
daily without interruption for the 128 years since. Daily publication
moved to afternoon on March 19, 1860, for economy and to give
readers faster telegraph service.
- Besides the daily paper, the Gazette continued to
publish a weekly edition until 1914 and published
- a tri-weekly edition for some years. The tri-weekly was promoted
as "indispensable to every intelligent family that cannot
afford a daily newspaper."
- The newspaper was weak financially in the early years, but
it was aided considerably by its
- commercial printing office. Its declared intention was to
be "fearless and fair," and that spirit helped keep
it alive during troubled times.
- Undoubtedly, one of the most significant events in the Gazette's
history was its purchase in 1883
- by Howard F. BLISS, marking the beginning of a century
of family ownership that continues today.
- Over the years, the Gazette has published from eight
locations, and changes in equipment con-
- tinually have improved the product. From its first location
at Main and Milwaukee streets, the Gazette moved in 1850
to the west side of South Main Street and the third floor of
what is now the Olde Towne Mall. In 1857, when it merged with
the Free Press, the Gazette moved to its third
location, above 2 and 4 W. Milwaukee.
- From there, it went back to the LAPPIN Block in 1860
and then in 1866 to 14 N. Main. a fire in
- 1899 forced a move next door, and in 1909 the newspaper moved
into the first Gazette Building at the corner of East Milwaukee
Street and South Bluff Street, now South Parker Drive.
- The in early summer 1968, the Gazette made its last
move, into a new $1 million structure - its
- current location at 1 S. Parker - just east of its former
building.
- Improvements in technology and equipment over the years have
improved the Gazette's ability to
- reflect happenings outside its door and half a world away.
- In 1901, for example, the Gazette purchased a Linotype
machine that enabled type to be set four
- times faster than by hand. In 1952, the Gazette installed
an Associated Press teletype that greatly speeded the setting
of state, national and international news.
- In 1965, the newspaper joined the AP's wirephoto network,
allowing it to receive photos by wire
- from all over the globe.
- Another significant equipment change came in 1969, when the
Gazette began printing on its new
- 64-page Goss Metro offset press, a 2 1/2-story, 100-ton machine
capable of printing 65,000 papers per hour.
- Then, in 1975, the Gazette took a major step into
the computer age by purchasing a computer
- system that had a revolutionary impact on the newspaper's
production. Reporters and editors cast aside their typewriters
for video display terminals with tremendous capabilities, allowing
them much more flexibility and speeding up the paper's production.
- From its humble beginnings in a small corner shop 140 years
ago, the Gazette steadily has
- expanded its capabilities and circulation, now reaching 31,000
homes in four Southern Wisconsin counties.
- Many newspapers have added to Janesville's history over the
years, and many have provided
- significant contributions to the community. The Gazette's
record, however, stands alone.
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