The Pittsburg Times

The Pittsburg[lower-alpha 1] Times was a morning daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1880 to 1906. It was an ancestor of the present-day Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The Pittsburg Times
TypeDaily newspaper
Founder(s)Robert P. Nevin
Founded2 February 1880 (1880-02-02)
Political alignmentRepublican
LanguageEnglish
Ceased publication30 April 1906 (1906-04-30)
CityPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
CountryUnited States
Sister newspapersThe Pittsburg Daily News

History
Times Building, 1890s
Office and staff, 1885
Pittsburgh newspaper consolidation timeline

The Times began publication on 2 February 1880, with Pittsburgh Leader veteran Robert P. Nevin as founder, proprietor and editor.[1] It was issued every morning except Sunday and was Republican in politics.[2]

In 1884, Nevin sold out to a company headed by local political boss Christopher Magee.[3][1] The new publishers attracted subscribers by cutting the price of an issue from two cents to a penny,[1] and by the end of the decade, reported a daily circulation exceeding that of the city's other morning papers.[4]

Having outgrown a series of modest quarters, the Times moved in 1892 to its new eight-story Times Building, designed by Frederick J. Osterling in Richardsonian Romanesque style.[5][6] The structure still stands in downtown Pittsburgh's Fourth Avenue Historic District.

The Pittsburg Daily News was launched in 1896 as the sister newspaper and evening counterpart of the morning Times. Half a decade later it was bought and absorbed by the city's leading evening paper, The Pittsburg Press.[7][8]

In 1906, five years after Magee's death, George T. Oliver bought the Times and merged it with the morning paper he already owned, The Pittsburgh Gazette, to form The Gazette Times. The merged publications were compatible in their conservatism, restraint from sensationalism, and Republican political bent. Prior to consolidation, both papers had a similar daily circulation of about 70,000.[9]

Anti-Masonic paper

An earlier, unrelated Pittsburgh Times existed roughly contemporaneously with the national Anti-Masonic movement of the late 1820s and the 1830s. Founded in 1829 as the (Anti-Masonic) Examiner,[10][11] it became the Times in January 1831.[12] The paper was established in opposition to Freemasonry and for most of its existence catered to "those who prefer the Supremacy of the Laws to the domination of the Lodge."[10][13] It was issued on a weekly basis,[14] with a short-lived daily edition in 1837.[15][16] It discontinued publication on 17 April 1839, transferring its subscription list and accounts to the Gazette.[17]

Notes
  1. The name of Pittsburgh was spelled with and without the h in the 1800s and early 1900s. The Times's style was to omit the h.

References
  1. Pittsburgh's Industrial Exposition, Year 1891 (PDF). Pittsburgh: Press of Percy F. Smith. c. 1891.
  2. Geo. P. Rowell & Co.'s American Newspaper Directory. New York: Geo. P. Rowell & Co. 1880.
  3. "Papers Merge After Hearst Enters Field". The Pittsburgh Press. 2 August 1927. p. 2, col. 4.
  4. N.W. Ayer & Son's American Newspaper Annual. Philadelphia: N.W. Ayer & Son. 1889. p. 462.
  5. "Removal Notice". The Pittsburg Times. 1 April 1892. p. 1, col. 2. On and after to-day, April 1st, the business office of The Pittsburg Times will be in its new eight-story granite building....
  6. Kidney, Walter C. (1985). Landmark architecture: Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. p. 146.
  7. Fleming, George Thornton (1922). History of Pittsburgh and Environs. 2. American Historical Society. p. 346.
  8. "About The Pittsburg daily news". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
  9. Andrews, J. Cutler (1936). Pittsburgh's Post-gazette: "The first newspaper west of the Alleghenies". Boston: Chapman & Grimes. p. 245. hdl:2027/uc1.$b112741.
  10. "Prospectus of The Pittsburgh Times". The Pittsburgh Times. 2 January 1839. p. 1, col. 1. When first established, under the title of the "Examiner," [the Times] was intended to support the principles of Democratic Antimasonry; and its course, during the whole of its existence, with the exception of a very short time, has been such as to satisfy those who prefer the Supremacy of the Laws to the domination of the Lodge.
  11. Andrews, J. Cutler (December 1935). "The Antimasonic Movement in Western Pennsylvania". Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine. 18 (4): 260–261.
  12. "The Times!". The Statesman. Pittsburgh. 19 January 1831. p. 3, col. 1. [T]he anti-masons have enlarged and changed the name of their paper.... The journal of that party is now called the 'Times' instead of the 'Examiner;' ...
  13. Andrews, J. Cutler (1936). Pittsburgh's Post-gazette: "The first newspaper west of the Alleghenies". Boston: Chapman & Grimes. p. 80.
  14. Thomas, Clarke M. (2005). Front-Page Pittsburgh: Two Hundred Years of the Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 46. ISBN 0-8229-4248-8.
  15. "The Pittsburgh Times". The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. 3 January 1837. p. 2, col. 1.
  16. "[untitled]". The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. 3 July 1837. p. 2, col. 1.
  17. "To Our Subscribers". The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette. 18 April 1839. p. 2, col. 2.
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