Marin Independent Journal

Last updated
Marin Independent Journal
Marin IJ Nov2 Front.jpg
TypeDaily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) MediaNews Group, et al.
Founder(s)Jerome A. Barney
PublisherRob Devincenzi
Managing editorJennifer Upshaw Swartz
FoundedMarch 23, 1861
LanguageEnglish
Headquarters4000 Civic Center Dr #301
San Rafael, California
Circulation 8,734 Daily
12,001 Sunday(as of 2022) [1]
Sister newspapers San Jose Mercury News, Santa Cruz Sentinel, East Bay Times
ISSN 0891-5164
OCLC number 61313188
Website marinij.com

The Marin Independent Journal is a newspaper in Marin County, California. It is owned by California Newspapers Partnership, which is majority owned by MediaNews Group. [2]

Contents

History

Marin Journal

On March 23, 1861, Jerome A. Barney published the first edition of the Marin County Journal in San Rafael, California. [3] It would go on to be one of the state's oldest newspapers. [4] In October 1872, Barney sold the paper to Simon F. Barstow, [5] who grew the business as the area's dairy industry boomed and nearby railroad construction started. The paper also became Republican affiliated. [6] In January 1898, Wallace C. Brown, former owner of the Contra Costa Gazette in Martinez, bought the Journal from Barstow. [7] He sold out after eight months to brothers Stephen and Cassius Clay Olmstead from San Diego. They bought new presses and a Linotype machine. [6] In January 1921, C.C. Olmstead sold the paper to E.L. Kynoch. [8]

Franc C. Farrar briefly owner the Journal until selling it in September 1929 to Harry Johnston and James P. McCabe. [9] In April 1934, H.W. MacKenzie and E.L. Kynoch bought the Journal from McCabe and Johnston, while W.F. McCamish retained his interests. [10] On Jan. 1, 1944, Thomas Frederick Bagshaw acquired the Journal from MacKenzie and the estate of Kynoch. [11] [12] In November 1947, Bagshaw sold the Journal to Henry W. Jackson, who owned the Marin Herald and West Marion Star. [13] On May 2, 1948, Jackson merged the Journal and Herald together expanded the paper from a biweekly to a morning daily. [14]

San Rafael Independent

In October 1899, Harry H. Granice, owner of the Sonoma Index-Tribune, announced he would start a new weekly called the San Rafael Independent. Its first editor was Thomas C. Howell. [15] The paper became a daily by 1903 under the management of his daughter, Celeste Granice Murphy. [16] That same year TheIndependent was sold to Michael F. Cochrane, [17] a 27-year-old insurance man. He enlarged the paper and made it Democratic affiliated. He also went on to be named San Rafel postmaster by President Woodrow Wilson and became a member of the State Harbor Commission. [6]

Cochrane died in September 1926. [18] Harry F. Lutgens then bought the paper for $70,000 from his estate. At the time, he was executive secretary to Governor Friend Richardson. [19] Lutgens made TheIndependent into the county's first daily in 1927. He owned the paper for about 11 years and grew circulation to 10,000. [6] In 1937, he sold it to Roy A. Brown, who previously published the Sanger Herald for 15 years. [20] Justus F. Craemer and William "Bill" O. Hart joined Brown in the purchase. [21] Hart died in a commercial plane crash in 1942. [22] Craemer and Brown then took over Hart's interests. [21]

Independent Journal

In November 1948, Henry W. Jackson merged the Marin Journal with the San Rafael Independent, which was owned by Roy A. Brown. The new paper would later be called the Independent Journal. [23] In December 1979, the Brown family sold the paper to Gannett. The Independent Journal then relocated its printing plant from San Rafael to Novato. [24] In 2000, Gannett sold the paper to MediaNews Group, a partnership headed by William Dean Singleton. At the time the paper's circulation was 40,000. [25]

The "hot-tubber" incident

In 2002, former President George H. W. Bush described "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh as "some misguided Marin County hot-tubber." [26] His comment prompted criticism among readers of the Marin Independent Journal, until Bush sent the paper a letter of apology: "Call off the dogs, please. I surrender...I apologize. I am chastened and will never use 'hot tub' and 'Marin county' in the same sentence again." [26]

Staff

The publisher and president of the Marin Independent Journal is Rob Devincenzi. Previous to this position, Devincenzi was named editor and publisher of several South Bay weekly newspapers. [27]

Awards

The Independent Journal won two first-place awards, three second-place awards and six "honorable mention" awards in the annual California News Publishers Association Better Newspapers Contest for 2016.[ citation needed ]

In 2020, the annual California News Publishers Association contest awarded 11 awards to The Independent Journal with a second-place award for general excellence.[ citation needed ]

Of these awards, The Independent Journal won second place in the breaking news category for a report of a mudslide in Sausalito in 2019. It won a third-place award for an editorial by Brad Breithaupt and a news photo by Alan Dep. Dep was also awarded a fourth-place award for feature photography alongside George Russel for editorial illustration [28]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Bay Area News Group Market Book" (PDF). Dropbox. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
  2. ↑ Advertise, Gallup Research - Media Usage 2004 and 2006, DataQuick Information Systems, from Marin Independent Journal website, retrieved 09.23.07
  3. ↑ "Marin County Journal". Petaluma Argus. March 26, 1861. p. 2.
  4. ↑ James Munro-Fraser, History of Marin County, California, "History Of San Rafael Township, Part 1," 1880 Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine , accessed June 7, 2008
  5. ↑ "Marin County Journal". The Daily Encinal. Alameda, California. October 12, 1872. p. 2.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "The Story of Marin's Daily Newspaper | Independent-Journal Has its Roots In Two Pioneer Publications". Daily Independent Journal. May 27, 1967. p. 55.
  7. ↑ "Notice". The Citrograph. Redlands, California. January 15, 1898. p. 6.
  8. ↑ "Marin Journal Sold". Petaluma Daily Morning Courier. January 5, 1921. p. 4.
  9. ↑ "Marin Journal at San Rafael Sold". Oakland Tribune. September 13, 1929. p. 19.
  10. ↑ "Journal Changes Hands". San Anselmo Herald. April 19, 1934. p. 3.
  11. ↑ "T. Frederick Bagshaw Purchases Newspaper". San Anselmo Herald. December 9, 1943. p. 1.
  12. ↑ "Marin Journal Sold To Supr. Bagshaw". Novato Advance. December 3, 1943. p. 1.
  13. ↑ "Jackson Purchases Old Marin Journal". The Press Democrat. Santa Rosa, California. United Press. November 30, 1947. p. 1.
  14. ↑ "Plan New Morning Paper Marin". The Berkeley Gazette. United Press. March 26, 1948. p. 11.
  15. ↑ "Brevities". Petaluma Daily Morning Courier. October 31, 1899. p. 3.
  16. ↑ Berry, Ken. "Celeste Murphy". Media Museum of Northern California. Retrieved 2025-09-02.
  17. ↑ "Independent in New Hands". Petaluma Daily Morning Courier. September 5, 1903. p. 4.
  18. ↑ "Michael F. Cochrane, Harbor Board Member, Dies at San Rafael". The Sacramento Bee. September 10, 1926. p. 16.
  19. ↑ "Lutgens Buys San Rafael Independent". The Modesto Bee. Associated Press. November 2, 1926. p. 1.
  20. ↑ "Bay Area Editors Welcome The Editors". Sanger Herald. January 15, 1937. p. 4.
  21. 1 2 "Justus Craemer's Life Spans Many Careers". Daily Independent Journal. April 1, 1961. p. 40.
  22. ↑ "Tragic Death of W.O. Hart Saddens Entire Community". Anaheim Gazette. December 17, 1942. p. 1.
  23. ↑ "2 Papers Merged In Marin County". Redwood City Tribune. Associated Press. November 30, 1948. p. 9.
  24. ↑ "Gannett chain buys San Rafael newspaper". The San Francisco Examiner. December 7, 1979. p. 8.
  25. ↑ Fost, Dan (September 19, 2000). "Marin Paper Is Sold | Singleton group will control IJ". San Francisco Chronicle. p. 39.
  26. 1 2 Campbell, Duncan (2002-07-16). "From hot tub to hot water". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2025-09-02.
  27. ↑ "Gale - Institution Finder". galeapps.gale.com. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  28. ↑ "2019 California Journalism Awards". cnpa.com. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
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