Pensacola News Journal

The Pensacola News Journal is a daily morning newspaper serving Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida. It is Northwest Florida's most widely read daily.

Pensacola News Journal
The July 15, 2010 front page
of the Pensacola News Journal
TypeDaily regional middle-market newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Gannett
PublisherLisa Reese
EditorLisa Nellessen-Savage
Founded1889
Headquarters2 N. Palafox St.
Pensacola, FL 32502
 United States
OCLC number54453673
Websitepnj.com

The News Journal is owned by Gannett, a national media holding company that owns newspapers such as USA Today and the Arizona Republic, among others.

History

The heritage of the News Journal can be traced back to 1889, when a group of Pensacola businessmen founded the Pensacola Daily News. The Daily News printed its first issue on 5 March 1889, with an initial circulation of 2,500 copies. Then, in March 1897, a Pensacolian named M. Loftin founded a newsweekly, the Pensacola Journal. The Journal converted to a daily format a year later.

The two dailies competed fiercely, each driving the other to edge of bankruptcy in the struggle to be recognised as Pensacola's top daily newspaper. By 1922, the Journal was in dire financial trouble, and was eventually purchased by New York businessman John Holliday Perry, who at about the same time also acquired papers in Jacksonville and Panama City.[1] Two years later, Perry bought the Daily News and merged the two newspapers' operations. For the next six decades, the Pensacola Journal continued to appear mornings and the Pensacola News evenings, with a combined Sunday edition as the Pensacola News Journal.

John H. Perry developed the News Journal into an extremely popular and successful newspaper. By the early 1950s, the News Journal had developed into one of the most modern and efficient newspaper operations in the Southeast. Under the leadership of Perry's son, John Holliday Perry, Jr., who succeeded his father in 1952,[2][3] the News Journal continued to expand. Perry Publications, Inc., eventually owned 28 newspapers throughout Florida.[4]

On July 1, 1969, the younger Perry announced he was selling the News and the Journal to Gannett, then based in Rochester, New York, for $15.5 million.[5]

Like many U.S. evening newspapers in the post-war period, the News sustained declining circulation. Finally, in 1985, the News and Journal merged into a single morning newspaper under the News Journal name.[6]

The paper gained nationwide notoriety in 1997 and 1998 with a series of investigative reports about the Brownsville Revival at the Brownsville Assembly of God. The paper had initially written glowing reports about the revival, but after former members told the paper that all was not as it appeared, the News Journal began a four-month investigation that revealed the revival had been "well planned and orchestrated" from the very start. It also called many of the claims made by the church's leaders into question, and delved heavily into the church's finances.[7]

The News Journal had a peak daily circulation of 64,041 and a Sunday circulation of 81,633 in 2002,[8] declining to a daily circulation of 29,981 and a Sunday circulation of 47,892 in 2015.[9]

After over a century, the production departments moved to Mobile, Ala., on 2 June 2009.[10]

In August 2014, the Pensacola News Journal moved to its new headquarters at 2 N. Palafox St.[11] The longtime headquarters at 101 E. Romana St. was demolished in 2015 by its new owners, Quint Studer's Daily Convo, who will build apartments, retail shops and a new YMCA on the site.[12]

References
  1. "John Holliday Perry Jr.'s Obituary on The Palm Beach Post". The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  2. Skinner, Sara (May 22, 2014). "This week in history: Perry buys Palm Beach newspapers". Historic Palm Beach. Palm Beach Post. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  3. "John H. Perry, Jr". ufdc.ufl.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-08.
  4. "About Us". Perry Institute for Marine Science. Archived from the original on February 18, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  5. "John Perry, Jr". Florida Press Association. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  6. "About Pensacola news journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1985-current". Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  7. Duin, Julia (December 5, 1997). "Pensacola paper takes another look at religious revival: Financial problems are examined". Washington Times.
  8. "Gannett Co., Inc. 2002 Annual Report" (PDF). March 18, 2003. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  9. "Gannett, Co. Inc. Form 10-K" (PDF). February 25, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  10. "'Pensacola News Journal' Outsources to 'Mobile Press-Register'". Editor & Publisher. April 3, 2009.
  11. Dixon, Wendy (October 2014). "Pensacola News Journal". Florida Trend.
  12. Dixon, Wendy (March 2014). "Pensacola News Journal". Florida Trend.

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