Type | Weekly newspaper |
---|---|
Owner(s) | Free Press Publishing |
Founded | 1896 |
Language | English |
Headquarters | 1616 W. First St. Cheney, WA 99004 |
Circulation | 3,695(as of 2022) [1] |
OCLC number | 17315741 |
Website | cheneyfreepress |
The Cheney Free Press is a weekly newspaper published in Cheney, Washington since in 1896. [2] [3] It was not the first newspapers there; the North-West Tribune was published in Cheney from June 1880 to about 1886, and was the second in Spokane County. [4] [5]
The Cheney Free Press was established by three Northwest newspaper veterans, [2] H. H. Hubbard, Dr. D. J. Turner and A. L. Ames. [6] It first published in April 1896. [7] The paper's first editor was George H. Wallis. It was originally delivered by horseback riders and the press stood underneath a tree as there was no building to house it. [8] The paper was launched in opposition to the Cheney Sentinel.
In May 1896, Wallis entered a post office to get his mail when he was assaulted by Richard A. Hutchinson in the lobby. The two fought and Wallis ended up with a large gash across his temple and a tracked skull. Hutchinson was upset about an article in the paper accusing him of corruption. Witnesses alleged Hutchinson attacked Wallis with a billy club or a slungshot, but no weapon was found. [9] [6] [10] At trial, the defence argued Wallis actually hurt his head after falling against a desk. [11] The jury convicted him of simple assault. [12]
In May 1898, Spencer L. Alexander purchased the paper. [13] Brothers Furman and Merrill Alexander bought the Union Printing Co. [14] Soon after the purchase, it was announced in a neighboring paper that the Free Press had deserted the Republican party and endorsed the People's Party and the fusion movement. [15]
In 1912, the Free Press began dedicating one of its six pages to the local high school, whose students assumed editorial control of the page's contents. [16] In that same year the Free Press lost a libel suit worth $1,250, and was joined by other Washington newspapers in its call for the state to update its libel laws. [17]
In 1915, Willis Swank bought the paper. He sold it in 1926 to Vernon Frost and M. L. Spencer, dean of the school of journalism at the University of Washington. [8]
In 1932, the paper was part of Medical Lake Press. [18] In 1936, Harry N. Beall and Max Schafer bought the paper. [19] In 1953, it was acquired by Guyel T. Frost. [20]
In 1989, Jeff Fletcher, owner of the Grant County Journal, [2] purchased the Free Press from the Wilbur and Jantz families. At the time the paper has a circulation of 3,200. [21] [22] Journal News Publishing was controlled by majority partner Jeff Fletcher, owner of the Grant County Journal. [2]
In 2007, Fletcher's sold his company, Journal News Publishing, to Bill Ifft. He renamed the company Free Press Publishing; [2] at the time the company owned several weekly newspapers in eastern Washington, including the Spokane Valley News Herald (its largest paper), the Davenport Times, and several specialty publications, and owned 70% of the Ritzville Journal. [23]
The company had previously had an ownership stake in the Newport Miner and the Grand Coulee Star, but had sold its interest to the local owners. The company planned to buy an additional press to support its own publications and also to serve other publications such as the Adams County Journal, the Wilbur Register, and the Miner. [2] [23]
In Mach 2020, Free Press Publishing acquired the Odessa Record and The Whitman County Gazette. Both newspapers are published weekly. [24]
Spokane is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, 92 miles (148 km) south of the Canadian border, 18.5 miles (30 km) west of the Washington–Idaho border, and 279 miles (449 km) east of Seattle, along Interstate 90.
Eastern Washington University (EWU) is a public university in Cheney, Washington, United States. It shares its satellite campus in Spokane, Washington with Washington State University.
Samuel C. Hyde was an American attorney and politician from Washington. A Republican, he was most notable for his service as prosecuting attorney of Spokane County from 1880 to 1886 and a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1895 to 1897.
Black Press Group Ltd. (BPG) is a Canadian commercial printer and newspaper publisher founded in 1975 by David Holmes Black, who has no relation to Canadian-born media mogul Conrad Black. Based in Surrey, British Columbia, it was previously owned by the publisher of Toronto Star and Black (80.65%).
The Everett Herald is a daily newspaper based in Everett, Washington, United States. It is owned by Sound Publishing, Inc. The paper serves residents of Snohomish County in the Seattle metropolitan area.
The Spokesman-Review is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Spokane, Washington, the city's sole remaining daily publication. It has the third-highest readership among daily newspapers in the state, with most of its readership base in eastern Washington and northern Idaho.
The Columbian is a daily newspaper serving the Vancouver, Washington, and Clark County, Washington area. It is owned by the Campbell family and is the newspaper of record for Vancouver and Washougal.
The Cowles Company is an American diversified media company based in Spokane, Washington. The company owns and operates The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, founded in 1894, and owned the Spokane Daily Chronicle until it was shut down in 1992. Built by William H. Cowles, the publishing business eventually constructed striking buildings in downtown Spokane for both papers. The Chronicle Building was eventually converted into offices and then residential. The company also owned several other papers and operates Inland Empire Paper Company, television stations, and interests in real estate, insurance, marketing and financial services.
Qlispé Raceway Park is a multi-venue motorsport facility in the western United States, in Spokane County, Washington.
William Goodyear was an American college football coach, newspaper editor, publisher, and politician in Whitman County in eastern Washington. He was the first head coach of the Washington State Cougars football team, holding that position for the 1894 college football season. Goodyear was also a newspaper publisher and editor. His newspapers included the Pullman Herald, the Pullman News, the Colfax Commoner in Colfax, Washington, the Palouse City News in Palouse, Washington, and the Pacific Farmers' Union. He was also active in Democratic Party politics and was the party's candidate for United States Congress in Washington's 3rd congressional district in 1908.
Eagle Newspapers was an American newspaper publisher serving the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The company originated in 1948 when Elmo Smith purchased the Blue Mountain Eagle. He would later sell the paper but the company's name would be derived from that title. Smith served a partial term as Oregon Governor and upon his death the business was managed by his son Denny Smith, who rapidly grew it from three newspapers to nearly twenty in the span of two decades. By 1985, Eagle Newspapers publications accounted for nearly one-half of the weekly newspapers sold each week in Oregon. The company sold off its last paper in 2020.
The Spokane Daily Chronicle is a daily digital newspaper in Spokane, Washington. It was founded as a weekly paper in 1881 and grew into an afternoon daily, competing with The Spokesman-Review, which was formed from the merger of two competing papers.
William James Sutton was an American politician in the state of Washington. He served in the Washington State Senate from 1913 to 1917 and 1921 to 1933. From 1931 to 1933, he was President pro tempore of the Senate.
The 1891 State Normal School at Cheney fire was a conflagration on the morning of August 27, 1891, that consumed the only building then housing the State Normal School at Cheney in Cheney, Washington. There were no deaths, but the destruction of the building sparked a multi-year battle with the governor and state legislature regarding whether the normal school would be shuttered, or whether the state would authorize funds for the construction of a replacement building.
The 1912 State Normal School at Cheney fire consumed the main classroom and office building of the State Normal School at Cheney, in Cheney, Washington, on April 24, 1912. There were no deaths, but the destruction of the building led to a prolonged political fight over whether the state legislature and governor would close the institution, or authorize funds for its replacement.
The Wallowa County Chieftain is a weekly newspaper in Enterprise, Wallowa County in the U.S. state of Oregon.
The Waitsburg Times is a weekly newspaper based in Waitsburg, Washington, United States. It is published on Thursdays and covers local news, sports, business and community events in Waitsburg and Walla Walla County. It has a circulation of about 1,500. The publisher is Lane Gwinn. The creation of the Waitsburg Times came about on March 11, 1878, when the Waitsburg Printing and Publishing Association was formed off the back of urging from the public. The association had a capital of $1250 in shares, which quickly sold at $25 each and so began the newspaper with B. K. Land as the editor. Financially, the plant and paper did not see great success and were suspended for a few weeks before J. C. Swask obtained the lease. Swask ran the paper for 8 months before selling the lease to C. W. Wheeler on August 20, 1881. The paper briefly ran a daily edition beginning in 1889 under the direction of Mr. Wheeler.
The Newport Miner is a weekly newspaper published Wednesdays in Newport, Washington, United States. It covers Newport and the surrounding communities of the Pend Oreille River valley and Pend Oreille County in the U.S. state of Washington and Bonner County in the state of Idaho.
Journalism in Washington began with the publication of newspapers in the cities of Port Townsend, Steilacoom, and Olympia in the 1860s. By then, there had been journalism in Oregon for as long as a decade.