Arkansas Gazette
The Arkansas Gazette was a daily newspaper in Little Rock, Arkansas, that was published from 1819 to 1991.
The Gazette was known as the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River. It was located from 1908 until its closing at the now historic Gazette Building. For many years it was the newspaper of record for Little Rock and the State of Arkansas.
The Arkansas Gazette began publication at Arkansas Post, the first capital of Arkansas Territory, on November 20, 1819. When the capital was moved to Little Rock in 1821, publisher William E. Woodruff also relocated the Arkansas Gazette. The newspaper was the first to report Arkansas' statehood in 1836.[1]
In 1958, the "Arkansas Gazette" was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and Harry Ashmore of the "Gazette" was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing for their coverage of the school integration crisis in LIttle Rock. [2]
Through much of its history, the Gazette was in competition with the Arkansas Democrat. Competition became more intense in 1979 when the Democrat changed from publishing in the evening to publishing in the morning.
After 12 years of bitter competition in the morning, the Arkansas Gazette published its final edition on October 18, 1991. The assets of the newspaper were sold to Walter E. Hussman, Jr., owner and publisher of the competing Arkansas Democrat. Hussman renamed the surviving paper the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.[1] The surviving newspaper proclaims itself a descendant of the Arkansas Gazette, but this viewpoint is disputed by the 726 full-time and 1,200 part-time employees of the Arkansas Gazette who lost their jobs with the demise of their newspaper, as well as by readers of the "Gazette" who preferred the quality of journalism found in the "Gazette" to that found in the "Arkansas Democrat," even holding a vigil for its demise.[3][4]
References
Sources
- Dougan, Michael B (1994). Arkansas Odyssey, The Saga of Arkansas from Prehistoric Times to Present. Little Rock: Rose Publishing Co. ISBN 0-914546-65-1.
- Reed, Roy (2009). Looking Back at the Arkansas Gazette: An Oral History. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1-55728-899-2.
- "The Old Gray Lady: Arkansas' First Newspaper". aetn.org. AETN. 2016. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
- "The Arkansas Gazette". encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
Notes
- 1 2 "Gazette and Democrat Wage Newspaper War". History of Newspapers in Arkansas. Old Statehouse Museum. 1998. Archived from the original on November 2, 2006.
- ↑ "1958 Pulitzer Prizes". pulitzer.org. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
- ↑ "The Arkansas Gazette". encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
- ↑ "The Old Gray Lady: Arkansas' First Newspaper". aetn.org. AETN. 2016. Retrieved November 8, 2016.