Ashland Daily Tidings

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Ashland Daily Tidings
Ashland Daily Tidings front page.jpg
Type Daily newspaper
Format Tabloid
Owner(s)Rosebud Media
Founder(s)James M. Sutton
FoundedJune 17, 1876
LanguageEnglish
Ceased publicationAugust 1, 2021
City Ashland, Oregon
Sister newspapers Mail Tribune
OCLC number 34915030

The Ashland Daily Tidings was a daily newspaper serving the city of Ashland, Oregon, United States. [1] It was managed by Edd Rountree, a well-known columnist in the state, from 1960 to 1985. Over the years the paper was owned by local families and companies including Capital Cities/ABC and Lee Enterprises before being purchased by the Medford-based Mail Tribune, which later absorbed the Tidings and itself ceased on January 13, 2023. [2]

Contents

Around that time the newspaper's old domain name was claimed by a company that posts articles from other sources, slightly changed by artificial intelligence. Lawyers have been unable to trace the origins of the new site. [3]

History

On June 17, 1876, James M. Sutton founded the Ashland Tidings. [4] [5] At the time Ashland, Oregon had a population of 500. In his first editorial, Sutton wrote "Believing that there is ample room in southern Oregon for a good independent family newspaper, we have resolved to make our effort to establish such a one." [6]

Sutton's health declined after a few issues. J. M. McCall then managed the paper followed by Capt. O. C. Applegate becoming publisher in 1878. A year later William Leeds and Corliss Merritt purchased the paper. [6] Merritt soon sold out to Leeds and years later he sold his interest to longtime employee Fred D. Wagner in 1894. Wagner installed the paper's first linotype machine in 1908. [6]

In March 1911, R. B. Bennett purchased the paper and ran it with his brother. He was a Yale University graduate who had worked for two years at the paper as a court reporter and telegraph editor. [7] About nine months later Bennett sold the Tidings to Bert R. Greer. [8] He died in 1926 and his widow Lillian Harris Greer owned the paper until her death in 1945. During her tenure the paper was edited and managed by G. M. Green. [9] Graham M. Dean, publisher of the Reno Gazette, purchased the paper in 1950. [10] He bought it from Green, trustee for paper's three owners. [11]

Edd Ellsworth Rountree purchased the paper in 1960. [12] Rountree published if for a decade and became known statewide for his popular "Friday Fish Fry" column on politics and current events which appeared on front page with a caricature above noting his opinion. [13] Rountree sold the paper in 1970 to the Democrat-Herald Publishing Co, which published the Albany Democrat-Herald . [14] Capital Cities purchased the company in 1980, [15] which itself was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 1995. [16] Disney sold its Oregon newspapers to Lee Enterprises in 1997. [17] Lee sold the Daily Tidings to the Dow Jones & Company in 2002. [18] The paper were managed by Local Media Group, another subsidiary of the international company News Corp. [19]

Front page of the newspaper on September 2, 1919 Ashland Daily Tidings.jpg
Front page of the newspaper on September 2, 1919

On September 4, 2013, News Corp announced that it would sell Local Media Group to Newcastle Investment Corp., an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, for $87 million. The newspapers were to be operated by GateHouse Media, a newspaper group owned by Fortress. News Corp CEO and former Wall Street Journal editor Robert James Thomson indicated that the newspapers were "not strategically consistent with the emerging portfolio" of the company. [20] GateHouse in turn filed prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 27, 2013, to restructure its debt obligations in order to accommodate the acquisition. [21]

In 2017, the Tidings and the Mail Tribune were sold by GateHouse to Rosebud Media. [22] On July 15, 2021, the owner of the Daily Tidings announced the paper would be replaced with an Ashland Edition of the Mail Tribune starting in August. [23] Two years later the Tribune ceased on January 13, 2023. [2] Soon after the Tidings' web domain was purchased by scammers who relaunched the website with articles written with Generative AI and sometimes featuring stolen bylines. [24]

Awards

The Tidings was one of three daily newspapers to win the Charles Sprague Award of General Excellence from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association in 1981. [25] In 2006 the Daily Tidings was awarded the "General Excellence" prize by the ONPA. [26] In 2015, it won five awards including a first place for best educational coverage from the ONPA. [27]

References

  1. ↑ Lozar, Patrick. "Ashland Tidings". Historic Oregon Newspapers. University of Oregon. Retrieved March 15, 2025.
  2. 1 2 Njus, Elliot; Eastman, Janet (January 11, 2023). "Mail Tribune, storied newspaper in Medford, to abruptly shut down". The Oregonian/OregonLive . Archived from the original on January 12, 2023. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Defunct Oregon newspaper revived with stories plagiarized by AI | Worth Your Time". KGW News. Portland OR: Tegna Inc. December 13, 2024.
  4. ↑ "Notice". The Albany Register. March 17, 1876. p. 4.
  5. ↑ "Oregon". The Oregonian. March 6, 1876. p. 1.
  6. 1 2 3 Turnbull, George S. (1939). "Jackson County"  . History of Oregon Newspapers  . Binfords and Mort.
  7. ↑ "Ashland Tidings Sold | Portland Men Take Charge of Established Paper". Morning Register. Eugene, Oregon. March 15, 1911. p. 5.
  8. ↑ "Asland Tidings Is Sold | Oklahoma Newspaperman Buys Paper From New Owners". The Oregonian. December 2, 1911. p. 6.
  9. ↑ "Rites Monday for Widow of Editor". United Press. July 2, 1945. p. 5.
  10. ↑ "Ashland Tidings Sold to Publisher Of Reno Paper". The Oregon Daily Journal. Associated Press. December 18, 1950. p. 10.
  11. ↑ "Reno Publisher Buys Paper at Ashland". Albany Democrat-Herald. United Press. December 18, 1950. p. 8.
  12. ↑ "Ashland Daily Tidings Sold to Ex-Californian". Medford Mail Tribune. January 4, 1960. p. 1.
  13. ↑ "Retired Ashland Publisher Dies at 67". The Oregonian. June 11, 1985. p. 39.
  14. ↑ "Albany Company Acquires Lebanon, Ashland Papers". The Capital Journal. March 4, 1970. p. 1.
  15. ↑ "Paper sale should be final today". Albany Democrat-Herald. July 14, 1980. p. 3.
  16. ↑ Geraldine Fabrikant (January 5, 1996). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS;Disney and ABC Shareholders Solidly Approve Merger Deal". The New York Times . Retrieved July 8, 2013.
  17. ↑ "Lee Enterprises closes purchase of Oregon newspapers from ABC". The Oregonian. September 9, 1997. p. 45.
  18. ↑ "Dow Jones to buy two Oregon papers". Albany Democrat-Herald. October 2, 2002. p. 4.
  19. ↑ Rafter, Michelle V. (January 31, 2009). "Good news for small papers". Oregon Business.
  20. ↑ Frank, Christine (September 4, 2013). "News Corp. sells 33 papers to New York investors". New York Business Journal. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  21. ↑ Pearson, Sophia; Kary, Tiffany (September 27, 2013). "GateHouse Files for Bankruptcy as Part of Fortress Plan". Bloomberg. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  22. ↑ Stiles, Greg (January 31, 2017). "Updated: Mail Tribune and Daily Tidings sold to Rosebud Media". Mail Tribune. Archived from the original on February 3, 2017. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  23. ↑ Saslow, Steven (July 15, 2021). "The Time is Now. Changes to the Mail Tribune and Ashland Tidings". Mail Tribune . Archived from the original on July 15, 2021. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  24. ↑ Haas, Ryan (December 9, 2024). "AI slop is already invading Oregon's local journalism". Oregon Public Broadcasting . Retrieved December 9, 2024.
  25. ↑ Colby, Richard (July 11, 1981). "Publishers Honor Frohnmayer". The Oregonian. p. 17.
  26. ↑ "2006 Better Newspaper Contest". Oregon Newspaper Publishers Assocation. Archived from the original on September 4, 2013. Retrieved March 15, 2025.
  27. ↑ Daily Tidings earns 5 awards from publishers' group, Mail Tribune , July 24, 2016. Retrieved May 24,2022.
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