Siskiyou Daily News

Last updated
Siskiyou Daily News
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Gannett
Founder(s)B.H. Evans
PublisherAmy Lanier
EditorSkye Kinkade
Founded1878 (as Scott Valley News)
LanguageEnglish
Headquarters309 South Broadway, Yreka, California 96097, United States
ISSN 1094-9763
OCLC number 28683624
Website www.siskiyoudaily.com

The Siskiyou Daily News is a daily newspaper serving Yreka, California, United States. [1] It is owned by Gannett. Former owner GateHouse Media acquired the paper from Hollinger in 1997. [2]

Contents

History

In August 1878, B. H. Evans published the first issue of the Scott Valley News in Fort Jones, California. [3] At some point Frank Norcross became an owner and sold his stake to his partner Samuel P. Curtis in September 1879. [4] A year later Ed. S. Culver bought a half-interest. [5] Culver retired and was succeeded by Frank Markey on Jan. 1, 1883. [6] In May 1886, Curtis skipped town. He left for Ukiah, taking all the business' available funds and leaving it $500 in debt. Markey struggled to run the paper on his own and decided to close it that August due to financial problems. [7]

About four months later, L.D. Clark, founder of the Oroville Mercury, relaunched the News. [8] Clark continued to operate the paper in Fort Jones and invented an automatic hand-press frisket to improve production. He got it patented it in December 1891. The Scientific American published an article on Clark's device a year later. [9] In May, 1894, Clark sold the paper to E. H. Ellsworth. [10] In June 1895, J. N. Bohen joined Ellsworth as a co-owner and the two moved the Scott Valley News to Yreka and changed its name to the Siskiyou News. [11] In 1897, their partnership dissolved and Bohen exited. [12] In 1898, W. J. Balfrey bought the News for $2,150. [13]

Ten days after selling the paper Ellsworth was stopped by Constable E. E. Dixon while attempting to board a train in Montague with his family to San Francisco. At the time Ellsworth was being sued for libel by local citizens and for unpaid wages from an employee. [14] He posted bail but another warrant for his arrest was issued stemming from another libel case. [15] Ellsworth refused to be detained and shot Dixon, who later died from his injuries. [14] Ellsworth was later found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 21 years imprisonment. [15]

In 1900, W. S. O'Brien paid Balfrey $2,850 for the business. [16] A year later W. D. Crow bought the paper from O'Brien. [17] Crow sold it in 1905 to brothers Frank E. and Horace Holbrook, former owners of the Times-Index. [18] [19] Horace sold out to his brother two years later. [20] In 1923, Frank Holbrook sold the News to Herbert G. Moody, who had been editor The Searchlight in Redding. At that time the News had a 2,000 circulation and 17 paid correspondents. [21] The Redding paper was owned by Moody's father, which he sold to his son in 1925. [22] In 1929, H. G. Moody sold the News to his father H.L. Moody. [23] A year later business was acquired by the Siskiyou Publishing Company for $18,000. [24]

On Oct. 2, 1941, the Siskiyou News, owned by Albert Wedin, and the Yreka Journal, owned by Walter B. Stafford and William G. Bailey, were merged to form a daily called the Siskiyou Daily News. [25] In 1948, Wedin sold the Daily News to E. Glenn Drake, [26] [27] who was succeeded as publisher in 1951 by Edgar J. Foss. At that time business operations were moved to Turlock. [28] In 1979, the chain Thomson Newspapers Inc. bought the paper from Foss. [29] The company owned more than 100 papers by 1993 when it sold the Daily News and four others to Hollinger. [30]

In 1997, the Daily News was among the 167 papers acquired by Leonard Green & Partners from Hollinger for $310 million. [31] A year later the investment firm formed Liberty Group Publishing to manage its publications. [32] In June 2005, Fortress Investment Group bought Liberty for $527 million. [33] The company was then renamed to GateHouse Media. [34] In 2019, GateHouse merged with Gannett. [35]

References

  1. "Siskiyou Daily News (Yreka, Calif.) 1941-Current". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2025-08-14.
  2. Roberts, Gene; Kunkel, Thomas; Layton, Charles, eds. (2001). Leaving Readers Behind: The Age of Corporate Newspapering . Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN   1610752325.
  3. ""Short-Bits."". Butte County Register. Oroville, California. August 16, 1878. p. 3.
  4. "Notice". Trinity Journal. Weaverville, California. September 13, 1879. p. 3.
  5. "Notice". Scott Valley News. Fort Jones, California. September 23, 1880. p. 2.
  6. "Corpartnership Notice". Scott Valley News. Fort Jones, California. January 13, 1883. p. 3.
  7. Markey, Frank (August 7, 1886). "To The Public". Scott Valley News. Fort Jones, California. p. 3.
  8. "Monday". Chico Weekly Enterprise. Chico, California. December 3, 1886. p. 1.
  9. "Speed The Hand-Press!". Scott Valley News. Fort Jones, California. April 2, 1892. p. 7.
  10. Clark, L.D. (May 26, 1894). "The Scott Valley News,". Scott Valley News. Fort Jones, California. p. 4.
  11. "Notice". The Oakdale Graphic. Oakdale, California. June 5, 1895. p. 1.
  12. "Notice". The Siskiyou News. Yreka, California. April 10, 1897. p. 4.
  13. "Bought a Newspaper". Marysville Democrat. Marysville, California. December 21, 1898. p. 5.
  14. 1 2 "Montage Officer Shot And Killed | Constable E.E. Dixon Murdered By E.H. Ellsworth". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. December 27, 1898. p. 1.
  15. 1 2 "Editor Ellsworth to Serve Sentence". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. February 21, 1900. p. 14.
  16. "Bills of Sale". The Siskiyou News. Yreka, California. August 23, 1900. p. 8.
  17. "Brevites". The Siskiyou News. Yreka, California. September 5, 1901. p. 5.
  18. "Siskiyou News Sold". The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, California. October 27, 1905. p. 12.
  19. "Personal". The San Bernardino County Sun. San Bernardino, California. November 19, 1905. p. 5.
  20. "Change in Yreka Paper". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. January 8, 1907.
  21. "Former Redding Man Buys Newspaper in Siskiyou County". Weekly Searchlight. Redding, California. September 13, 1923. p. 3.
  22. "H. G. Moody Is New Owner Of Searchlight". The Searchlight. Redding, California. July 18, 1925. p. 1.
  23. "H.G. Moody Sells Siskiyou News To His Father Of Redding". The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, California. September 20, 1929. p. 10.
  24. "Daily Siskiyou News Sold By H.G. Moody". The Searchlight. Redding, California. April 15, 1930. p. 6.
  25. "Siskiyou News, Yreka Journal Merge Into a Daily". Siskiyou Daily News. Yreka, California. October 2, 1941. p. 1.
  26. "Wedin Sells Interest In News, Journal". Siskiyou Daily News. Yreka, California. June 30, 1948. p. 1.
  27. "Yreka Paper Deal". Medford Mail Tribune. Medford, Oregon. July 7, 1948. p. 6.
  28. "New Mexican Becomes Publisher In Siskiyou". The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, California. United Press. October 20, 1951. p. 15.
  29. "Chian buys Yreka paper". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. August 28, 1979. p. 2.
  30. "Top of the morning | Thomson Sells 5 Daily Newspapers". Indian River Press Journal. Vero Beach, Florida. Associated Press. p. 16.
  31. Shigley, Paul (December 5, 1997). "Small newspapers one part of big sale". Record Searchlight. Redding, California. p. 27.
  32. Culloton, Dan. "Red ink pressing publisher; Liberty Group grew fast, but so did its debt — Crains — August 5, 2004". Highbeam.com. Retrieved 2012-05-06.[ dead link ]
  33. U.S. "International Directory of Company Histories. Copyright © 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc". Answers.com. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
  34. GateHouse Media stock being delisted from NYSE - October 22, 2008 Archived October 28, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  35. "New Media and Gannett Complete Merger, Creating Leading U.S. Print and Digital News Organization" (Press release). Business Wire. November 19, 2019.