 Front page, 17 October 1909 | |
| Founder(s) | John W. Pittock |
|---|---|
| Founded | 11 December 1864 (Sunday), 18 October 1870 (daily) |
| Political alignment | Independent |
| Language | English |
| Ceased publication | 14 February 1923 |
| City | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Country | United States |
The Pittsburgh Leader was a newspaper published from 1864 to 1923 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
John W. Pittock, a 21-year-old former newsboy, first published the Leader as a Sunday weekly on 11 December 1864. [1] [2] A daily edition called the Evening Leader appeared on 18 October 1870 under the leadership of Pittock and partners John I. Nevin, Robert P. Nevin, and Edward H. Nevin. [3] The paper took an independent political line. [2]
Already in 1873, the Leader was listed in Rowell's American Newspaper Directory as having the largest daily circulation in Pittsburgh. It was also at the time the city's only daily with a Sunday edition, aside from the German-language Volksblatt. [4]
Following Pittock's death in 1881, members of the Nevin family owned and operated the paper until selling in 1906 to a team led by Alexander Pollock Moore, who became publisher and editor-in-chief. Ex-political boss William Flinn was suspected of being the real purchaser, bringing into question the paper's claimed nonpartisanism. [5] Muckraker Will Irwin, writing in Collier's magazine, accused Moore of turning the responsible, civic-minded Leader into a scandalmongering "yellow newspaper." [6]
The Leader and the Pittsburgh Dispatch published their last issues on 14 February 1923, being jointly purchased and absorbed by the other Pittsburgh papers: the Post, Sun, Gazette Times, Chronicle Telegraph, and the Press . At the time, advertisers and publishers had long regarded the Pittsburgh newspaper market as overcrowded. [7] Only four years after the demise of the Leader and Dispatch, mergers further narrowed the field of mainstream Pittsburgh dailies from five to three.
Early in her career, author Willa Cather worked at the Leader as a telegraph editor and drama critic.
Investigative journalist and media critic George Seldes started out as a cub reporter at the Leader in 1909 at age 18. In a late-life memoir, he alleged that the Leader and other papers had allowed businesses to kill unfavorable stories in exchange for advertising payments. [8] [9]
Actress Lillian Russell, who was married to publisher Moore, had a beauty advice column called "Lillian Russell's Philosophy." [10] Russell's death in June 1922 possibly contributed to Moore's decision to discontinue the paper; Moore said in his farewell column eight months later that "since June of last year I have not had the same incentive to continuous effort that previously inspired me." [7]
Arthur G. Burgoyne or cartoonist Fred Johnston, or both, created the character Father Pitt as a personification of the city of Pittsburgh. The character was adopted by numerous editorial cartoonists in other Pittsburgh papers. [11] [12]
The Leader spelled its city's name as "Pittsburgh" originally, and "Pittsburg" from 1876 on. It announced the change on New Year's Eve, 1875:
Pittsburghers, in spite of the next to universal practice outside of their own immediate neighborhood, will persist in spelling the name of their city with a final "h." The Leader has thus far acquiesced in the general custom, but the time has come when it must decline to follow up on that line any longer. After next Sunday, therefore, the superfluous letter may not be expected to again appear in our pages. [13]
Alexander Pollock Moore was an American diplomat, editor and publisher.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, also known as "the Trib", is the second-largest daily newspaper serving the Greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area of Western Pennsylvania. It transitioned to an all-digital format on December 1, 2016, but remains the second-largest daily in Pennsylvania, with nearly one million unique page views monthly. Founded on August 22, 1811, as the Greensburg Gazette and consolidated with several papers into the Greensburg Tribune-Review in 1889, the paper circulated only in the eastern suburban counties of Westmoreland and parts of Indiana and Fayette until May 1992, when it began serving all of the Greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area after a strike at the two Pittsburgh dailies, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Pittsburgh Press, deprived the city of a newspaper for several months.
The Pittsburgh Dispatch was a leading newspaper in Pittsburgh, operating from 1846 to 1923. After being enlarged by publisher Daniel O'Neill it was reportedly one of the largest and most prosperous newspapers in the United States. From 1880 to 1887 native of nearby Cochran's Mills, Nellie Bly worked for the Dispatch writing investigative articles on female factory workers, and later reported from Mexico as a foreign correspondent. The paper was politically independent and was particularly known for its in-depth court reporting.
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Henry Lewis Pittock was an English-born American pioneer, publisher, newspaper editor, and wood and paper magnate. He was active in Republican politics and Portland, Oregon civic affairs, a Freemason and an avid outdoorsman and adventurer. He is frequently referred to as the founder of The Oregonian, although it was an existing weekly before he reestablished it as the state's preeminent daily newspaper. A famous quote attributed to Henry Pittock was "The man who sits down never reaches the top."
Pa Pitt, originally "Father Pitt", has been a personification of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania since the 1890s. Numerous editorial cartoonists have depicted "Pa Pitt" over the years, notably Pittsburgh Post-Gazette cartoonist Cy Hungerford.
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