Hartford Courant

The Courant was purchased in 1979 by Times Mirror, the Los Angeles Times' parent company. The first years of out-of-town ownership are described by a former Courant reporter in a book titled Spiked: How Chain Management Corrupted America's Oldest Newspaper. [12] One criticism was that the new owners were more interested in awards, and less interested in traditional Courant devotion to exhaustive coverage of local news.

The Courant won a 1992 Pulitzer Prize for inquiring into problems with the Hubble Space Telescope (a Connecticut company was involved in the construction), and it won a 1999 Pulitzer Prize in the Breaking News category for coverage of a 1998 murder-suicide that took five lives at Connecticut Lottery headquarters. A series of articles about sexual abuse by the head of a worldwide Catholic order, published since February 1997, constituted the first denunciation of Marciel Maciel known to a wider audience.[13][14]

The current building of the Hartford Courant Co.

In 2000, Times Mirror and the Courant became part of the Tribune Company, one of the world's largest multimedia companies. By then the Courant had acquired the Valley Advocate group of "alternative" weeklies started by two former Courant staff members in 1973. Tribune also owned two local television stations: Fox affiliate WTIC-TV and The CW affiliate WCCT-TV.

In 2005, The Courant became the most recent American newspaper to win the Society for News Design's World's Best Designed Newspaper award.[15] In 2006, the paper's investigation into mental health and suicides among Americans serving in the Iraq war was featured in the PBS documentary series Exposé: America's Investigative Reports in an episode entitled "Question 7."

In late June 2006, the Tribune Co. announced that Courant publisher Jack W. Davis Jr. would by replaced by Stephen D. Carver, vice president and general manager of Atlanta, Ga., TV station WATL. In March 2009, Tribune replaced Carver with Richard Graziano, who was given a dual role as Courant publisher and general manager of Tribune's two Hartford television stations. In May of the same year, Tribune announced that Jeff Levine, a newspaper executive with a background in marketing, would become "director of content" and that the editor or "print platform manager" of the Courant would report to Levine as would the news director of WTIC-TV. Shortly after that, the Courant's two highest ranking editors were let go.[16][17]

After 2010, Courant has offered early retirement and buyout packages to reduce staff as it continues to experience declines in advertising revenue. There have also been layoffs and reduction in pages. Newsroom staff peaked in 1994 at close to 400 staff, down to 175 staff by 2008, and 135 staff in 2009.[18]

Tribune Company brought frequent changes in the Courant's top leadership. On Nov. 18, 2013 Tribune appointed Nancy Meyer as Publisher, succeeding Rich Graziano who left to become President/General Manager of WPIX-TV (PIX11) in New York City. In 2014, the Courant purchased the ReminderNews chain of weekly newspapers.[19]

On October 10, 2014 Tribune Company announced the appointment of Rick Daniels as publisher of the Courant, succeeding Nancy Meyer who was promoted to publisher and CEO of the Orlando Sentinel.[20]

Andrew Julien was named the combined publisher and editor in March 2016, replacing Tom Wiley, who departed after two months.[21]

In 2018, the Hartford Courant joined more than 300 newspapers in releasing editorials in response to President's Trump's anti-media rhetoric, a show of solidarity initiated by The Boston Globe. "The Hartford Courant joins newspapers from around the country today to reaffirm that the press is not the enemy of the American people." [22][23]

In October 2020, the Courant announced that it would be discontinuing printing the paper in Hartford and outsourcing future printing to the Springfield Republican in Massachusetts.[24]

In December 2020, Tribune Publishing announced that it would be closing the Courant's Broad Street newsroom by the end of the year with no current plans to open another.[25]

Nancy Tracy of the Hartford Courant was a 1984 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Feature Writing for her moving depiction of Meg Casey, a victim of premature aging.[27]

Robert S. Capers and Eric Lipton of the Hartford Courant won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism for their series on how a flawed mirror built at Connecticut's Perkin-Elmer Corporation immobilized the Hubble Space Telescope. [28] [29]

The Hartford Courant Staff won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of a shooting rampage in which a state lottery employee killed four supervisors then himself.[30] [31]

Reporters Mike McIntire and Jack Dolan of the Hartford Courant were 2001 Pulitzer Prize Finalists in Investigative Reporting for their work in revealing the mistakes of practicing doctors who have faced disciplinary action.[32]

Photojournalist Brad Clift was a 2003 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Feature Photography for his photo series "Heroin Town", which depicted heroin use in Willimantic. [33]

Lisa Chedekel and Matthew Kauffman of the Hartford Courant were 2007 Pulitzer Prize Finalists in Investigative Reporting for their in-depth reporting on suicide rates among American soldiers in Iraq which led to congressional and military action addressing the issues raised in the series. [34]

The Hartford Courant Staff was a 2013 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for its comprehensive and compassionate coverage of the 2012 shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. [35][36]

In August 2009, the Courant attracted some controversy over its firing of George Gombossy, a 40-year veteran of the paper and its consumer advocate at the time. Gombossy charged that the Courant had spiked an article he had written about an ongoing investigation by the Connecticut attorney general accusing Sleepy's (a major advertiser in the paper) of selling used and bedbug-infested mattresses as new.[41][42][43]

Gombossy's lawsuit against the Courant was thrown out by a Connecticut Superior Court judge in July 2010. In his decision, Judge Marshall K. Berger, Jr. remarked that newspaper owners and editors have a "paramount" right to "control [the] content of their papers," further observing that in his role at the Courant, Gombossy had "no constitutional right to publish anything."[44]

However, Gombossy's attorneys filed a second complaint, and Judge Berger reinstated the complaint. The case headed to trial in the fall of 2011.

In September 2009 the Courant's publisher, Richard Graziano, publicly apologized as the newspaper accepted a plagiarism charge. Competitors had accused the Courant of taking its content without permission and refusing to give proper credit.[45][46]

For over 123 years Camp Courant has been a centerpiece in the Hartford community and a welcomed signifier of summer for the city's youth. The camp was founded in 1894 by a group of Hartford Courant employees who wanted to make a difference and today the camp serves over 1,000 of Hartford's children, ages five to 12, generally between 500 - 600 children per day for six weeks each summer. Camp Courant is the largest free summer day camp in the country and is the only summer camp servicing Hartford's inner-city youth. The program provides transportation, preventive and acute health and social work services, two meals a day, and recreational, educational and developmental activities, all at no cost to the camper or their family. The camp totes programming that helps campers develop into healthy, responsible adults. Camp Courant is located on a 36-acre site in Farmington, which is leased from the City of Hartford.[47]