Publisher: Delaware news

Managed Service

Entertainment, Financial Services, Sports

The history of The News Journal reflects the changes in lifestyles and newspaper readership since the late 19th Century. In the late 1800s, four afternoon newspapers competed for readers in northern Delaware. Eventually, only one of those afternoon newspapers survived the newspaper wars and thrived until the latter part of the 20th century. By the end of the 20th century, the last evening newspaper (Evening Journal) disappeared and was replaced by a morning newspaper (The News Journal). The ancestry of The News Journal dates back to Oct. 1, 1866, when Norristown natives Howard M. Jenkins and Wilmer Atkinson published the first edition of the Daily Commercial. In 1877, a rival newspaper, the Every Evening, founded by Georgetown native William T. Croasdale, absorbed the Daily Commercial into its operation. In 1888, Charles W. Edwards and Frederick Eden Bach founded the Evening Journal to compete with the Every Evening. The two newspapers eventually merged into the Journal-Every Evening on Jan. 2, 1933, and published under this name until Nov. 14, 1960, when it became the Evening Journal. By contrast to the lively competition of the evening newspapers, morning publication belonged exclusively to one newspaper. Philadelphia lawyer John O'Byrne in 1876 founded the Morning Herald, which later became the Daily Morning News under the leadership of a prominent Wilmington lawyer and historian, Henry C. Conrad. Alfred I. du Pont owned the Morning News from 1911 to 1920 when he sold it to the Evening Journal and The News-Journal Co. was created. In 1927, The News-Journal Co. became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Christiana Securities Co., a holding company for Du Pont Co. stock. The News-Journal Co. published both The Morning News and Evening Journal 6 days per week until 1975, when it added the Sunday News Journal and eliminated the Saturday Evening Journal. After the Du Pont company dissolved Christiana Securities and announced that it was no longer in the newspaper business, it sold the holdings to the Gannett Co. for $60 million in 1978. In February, 1989, The News Journal moved from 831 Orange Street to its present location on Basin Road just off I-95. In April, 1989, The News Journal published the final edition of the Evening Journal. In 1996 we became one of over 30 print sites for USA Today, the nation's newspaper. In 1996 we launched delawareonline.com to provide our readers with another product to keep them informed about news, real estate, entertainment, and much more in the state of Delaware. Today we offer a variety of products and services in keeping with our Mission Statement: We will secure our position as the most valued information source in Delaware by providing superior information products, services, and customer satisfaction. By doing this, we will increase our value to society, our customers, our employees and our stockholders.

delawareonline.com