Charleston Gazette The
Gazette traces its roots to 1873. At the time, it was a weekly newspaper known as the
Kanawha Chronicle. It was later renamed
The Kanawha Gazette and the
Daily Gazette—before its name was officially changed to
The Charleston Gazette in 1907. In 1912 it came under the control of the Chilton family, who ran it until its bankruptcy in 2018.
William E. Chilton, a U.S. senator, was publisher of
The Gazette, as were his son, William E. Chilton II, and grandson, W. E. "Ned" Chilton III, Yale graduate and classmate/protégé of conservative columnist
William F. Buckley, Jr. Ironically, the paper's opinion page, usually on the left, carried Buckley's column until Buckley's death. In 1918 a fire destroyed the
Gazette building at 909 Virginia St. The newspaper was moved to 227 Hale St., where it remained for 42 years. Ned Chilton used to claim that the job of a newspaper was to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." The newspaper's liberal reputation was enhanced by principal editorial writer and columnist L. T. Anderson, associate editor and two-time runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize. Anderson later moved to the rival
Daily Mail as a columnist after he was passed over for an editorial position at the
Gazette, and often used his
Daily Mail column to snipe at his former employer.
Charleston Daily Mail The
Daily Mail was founded in 1914 by former Alaska Governor
Walter Eli Clark and remained the property of his heirs until 1987. Governor Clark described the newspaper as an "independent Republican" publication. In 1987, the Clark heirs sold the paper to the Toronto-based
Thomson Newspapers. The new owners moderated the political views of the paper to some degree. In 1998, Thomson sold the Daily Mail to the Denver-based
MediaNews Group. Editorial writer Jack Maurice won the Pulitzer Prize for editorials in 1975 for a series of editorials he wrote the year before amid a battle over textbooks in Kanawha County. It was the first Pulitzer won by a newspaper in West Virginia. The newspaper published in the afternoons, Monday-Saturday, with a Sunday morning edition, until 1961; Monday - Saturday afternoons from 1961-2005, Monday - Friday afternoons from 2005-2009, and Monday - Friday mornings from 2009-2015.
Combination of operations Under a
Joint Operating Agreement the two newspapers merged their production and distribution from 1961, while maintaining completely separate editorial operations. A combined
Sunday Gazette-Mail (distinct from the 2015 fully-merged newspaper) was published on Sundays from 1961 to 1991, produced by both papers' staffs, and from 1991 to 2015, produced by the
Gazette staff alone. A similar combined
Saturday Gazette-Mail was published on Saturdays from 2005 to 2015. It was likewise produced by the
Gazette staff, but featured two editorial pages, one produced by each paper's staff.
Merger, sale, and bankruptcy In 2004, the
Gazette purchased the
Daily Mail. In May 2007, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit, alleging that the Daily Mail had been operated in an uncompetitive manner. The newspaper settled without trial and agreed a federal injunction prohibiting it from shutting down the
Daily Mail until July 20, 2015. The previous owner was to be paid a fee to produce the paper during that era, and controlled its editorial content. On July 20, 2015, owners merged the
Daily Mail and
Gazette without prior notice and renamed the paper the
Charleston Gazette-Mail. The entire staff of both papers was given two-weeks notice and told to "reapply" for jobs at the new paper. The combined paper included both former
Gazette and
Daily Mail staff members, and included two separate editorial pages that were intended to represent the
Daily Mails more conservative views, and
Gazettes more liberal views, on current topics. On July 23, 2015, the
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation filed a $1.3 million
lien on the company because of "years of unpaid pension deposits". On October 6, 2015, the previous owner of the
Daily Mail, the
MediaNews Group, filed suit in the
Delaware Court of Chancery against the
Gazettes owners. They alleged that: • In the event the
Daily Mail was ever shut down, the intellectual property of the
Daily Mail, including the domain name dailymail.com and the trademark "Charleston Daily Mail", were to pass to the previous owner. • Instead, the domain name dailymail.com was sold to the
London paper, without MediaNews' permission, and the proceeds were spent by the
Gazettes owners. • The "merged" paper was named the
Gazette-Mail, and continues to use the "Daily Mail" trademarks for its editorials, thus depriving MediaNews of the trademark's reverted value. • The merger of the papers was announced unilaterally and subjected the MediaNews Group to possible antitrust liability. • The MediaNews Group had not been paid its production fee for over two years, amounting to over $450,000. • The merger required a "super-majority" of the combined papers' board, 4 of the 5 board members, with 2 of the members having been appointed by the MediaNews Group. No board meeting was ever held. The matter was taken to
arbitration and the
Gazette was found liable on all counts. A judgment was awarded for almost $4,000,000. The Gazette appealed to the
United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia but was again found liable on all counts. In October 2017, the newspaper ceased physical printing of a Monday edition, substituting a "virtual edition" and website updates. In January 2018, the company settled for an undisclosed sum with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Trust, filed under the
WARN Act notice that up to 206 of its 209 remaining employees "might" be subject to termination and then filed for
bankruptcy. This set up a 60-day period during which bids for the paper can be made, with the opening high bid coming from
Ogden Newspapers, which publishes five other daily newspapers in the state. However, local politician Doug Reynolds, owner of the
Huntington Herald-Dispatch, together with investors he declined to name, entered a higher bid and Ogden withdrew. On March 9, 2018, bankruptcy judge Frank Volk approved sale of
Gazette-Mail to
HD Media. The company having met the conditions set forth in a February order, including bidding at least $500,000 more than
Ogden Newspapers' initial bid of $10,911,000. The final sale price was $11,487,243. The previous day, Ogden Newspapers announced that they no longer intended to pursue purchase, leaving HD Media as the highest bidder. On July 16, 2023, the newspaper announced the elimination of its Sunday print edition. Instead, a combined weekend edition would be sent out on Saturday starting Aug. 5. ==Awards==