The Oregon Journal was Portland, Oregon's daily afternoon newspaper from 1902 to 1982.[1] The Journal was founded in Portland by C. S. "Sam" Jackson, publisher of Pendleton, Oregon's East Oregonian newspaper, after a group of Portlanders convinced Jackson to help in the reorganization of the Portland Evening Journal. The firm owned several radio stations in the Portland area. In 1961, the Journal was purchased by S.I. Newhouse and Advance Publications, owners also of The Oregonian, the city's morning newspaper.
The Portland Evening Journal was first published on March 10, 1902.[2] This newspaper began as a campaign paper owned by A. D. Bowen, with William Wasson as the first editor.[2] However, within a few months the paper had floundered and was being liquidated.[3] In July 1902, the Evening Journal, was taken over by C.S. "Sam" Jackson, who had been the publisher of the East Oregonian based in Pendleton.[2][3] Jackson renamed the paper The Oregon Daily Journal.[2] In his first editorial as publisher of the Journal, on July 23, 1902, Jackson declared:
"The Journal in head and heart will stand for the people, be truly Democratic and free from political entanglements and machinations, believing in the principles that promise the greatest good to the greatest number – to ALL MEN, regardless of race, creed or previous condition of servitude.... It shall be a FAIR newspaper and not a dull and selfish sheet – [and] a credit to 'Where rolls the Oregon' country."[4]
The Journal at its height
Sam Jackson served as the Journal's editor and publisher for 22 years, from July 1902 until his death in 1924.[3] He was succeeded by his son, Philip L. Jackson, who, following his father's footsteps, ran the newspaper for 29 years, expanding into broadcasting.
Under the Jacksons' leadership, the Journal competed with the state's major newspaper, The Oregonian, also based in Portland, with the Journal touting itself as the "strong voice of the Oregon Country." The paper was involved in a number of early 20th century crusades for reform, including better control of Oregon timberlands, adoption of the initiative, referendum and recall laws, direct election of U.S. senators, pure milk, and dredging of the Columbia River navigation channel to allow development of Portland as a major world port.
In 1947, the Journal became the first newspaper in the country to employ a helicopter on a regular basis to gather news photographs.
On June 6, 1948, KALE became KPOJ, standing for, Portland Oregon Journal. Also on this date KPOJ-FM (98.7) was launched.
The Journal's circulation peaked in 1948, with daily sales of 201,421 and Sunday circulation of 217,808.[5]
Transition and decline
In 1953, Philip Jackson died from heart disease.[6]William W. Knight, who had been the paper's legal counsel, was brought in as its new publisher. C.S. Jackson's widow, Maria Clopton Jackson, died just a few years later, in 1956.[4] With the successive deaths of C.S. Jackson II, Philip Jackson, and Maria Jackson, no family heirs were left to oversee the business and its operations. In this era, afternoon newspapers began their decline due to the rise of television, changing commuting patterns and other forces. The paper's economic vitality was further sapped by a lengthy strike against both Portland newspapers that began in November 1959, and by the competing Portland Reporter newspaper that was launched by striking workers. The newspapers published a joint strike edition, but while separate publication of the Journal resumed in 1960, its circulation never approached pre-strike levels.[citation needed]
Although the will of C.S. Jackson's widow, Maria Clopton Jackson, had specified that the newspaper's stock should be transferred to its employees upon her death, the trustees of her estate challenged that decision in court. Eventually, the courts ruled that the provision was written in wishful, not binding language.
In 1961 the trustees, believing that losses from the strike could bankrupt the paper and deprive the foundation of much of its principal, sold the Journal to The Oregonian's publisher, S. I. Newhouse, for $8 million. This amount was twice the bid made by an Oregon group.[citation needed] Newhouse had acquired The Oregonian, Portland's morning daily, in 1950. Newhouse consolidated production and business operations of the two newspapers in The Oregonian's building while keeping their editorial staffs separate. As a result of the Newhouse acquisition, publication of the Journal's Sunday edition was discontinued. The company's radio stations were sold in 1961 to make way for the Journal's sale.
The Journal never recovered the readership lost in the 1959 strike. Its circulation steadily declined through the 1960s and 1970s.[citation needed]
Final decade(s)
William Knight continued as publisher, retiring in 1971. Other key creative forces in the paper's final decades included Editor Donald J. Sterling Jr., columnists Dick Fagan (creator of Mill Ends Park, the world's smallest park) and Doug Baker, Sports Editor George Pasero and prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly.
Under the terms of sale of the Journal by The Jackson Foundation, the newspaper was to remain under "independent editors until 1981".[4] In 1982, the Journal ceased publication due to declining circulation and advertising revenues. Most Journal reporters and many of the paper's features were moved into a revamped Oregonian. The final edition of The Oregon Journal was published on September 4, 1982.[5]
Awards and honors
Founding publisher, C.S. Jackson, inducted into the Oregon Newspaper Hall of Fame, 1979[7]
Editor, Donald J. Sterling Jr., inducted into the Oregon Newspaper Hall of Fame, 1983[7]
The Journal was published at four downtown Portland locations during its 80-year history. From 1902 to 1912, it was headquartered in the Goodnough Building at Fifth and Yamhill Streets. In 1912, the newspaper moved to a 12-story building it had constructed at Southwest Broadway and Yamhill Streets. (The iconic Portland building, now known as Jackson Tower, has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1996.) The paper had outgrown that structure by the 1940s, and in 1948, the Journal moved to a three-block-long structure on SW Front Avenue that had originally been constructed in 1933 as the Portland Public Market. That building was home to the Journal until the paper was acquired by Newhouse in 1961. The building stood empty and deteriorating until it was demolished in 1969; the site is now part of Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
Archives and legacy
Archives of the Journal are maintained by The Oregonian.
The firm's legacy lives on in the airwaves, as well: besides KOIN-TV (now owned by Nexstar and still a CBS affiliate), KOIN today is KUFO; FM 101.1 is now KXL-FM; KALE is KKPZ; and KPOJ-FM is KUPL. The current KPOJ at 620 (a sports radio station since 2012) is unrelated in any way to the Journal and its broadcast division, and the calls were exploited in an unsuccessful attempt to mine nostalgia value during a 2003 conversion of that station to an oldies format.
Dana, Marshall N. Newspaper Story: Fifty Years of the Oregon Journal, 1902-1952 (Dust jacket title: The First Fifty Years of the Oregon Journal: A Newspaper Story). Portland: Binfords and Mort, 1951.
The Oregonian is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850, and published daily since 1861. It is the largest newspaper in Oregon and the second largest in the Pacific Northwest by circulation. It is one of the few newspapers with a statewide focus in the United States. The Sunday edition is published under the title The Sunday Oregonian. The regular edition was published under the title The Morning Oregonian from 1861 until 1937.
Charles Samuel Jackson was a prominent newspaper publisher in the U.S. state of Oregon.
The Statesman Journal is the major daily newspaper published in Salem, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1851 as the Oregon Statesman, it later merged with the Capital Journal to form the current newspaper, the second-oldest in Oregon. The Statesman Journal is distributed in Salem, Keizer, and portions of the mid-Willamette Valley. The average weekday circulation was 27,859, with Sunday's readership listed at 36,323, in 2012.. It is owned, along with the neighboring Stayton Mail and Silverton Appeal Tribune, by the national Gannett Company.
Harvey Whitefield Scott (1838–1910) was an American pioneer who traveled to Oregon in 1852. Scott was a long-time editorialist, and eventual part owner of The Oregonian newspaper. Scott was regarded by his contemporaries as instrumental in bringing the state of Oregon firmly into the political camp of the Republican Party.
The East Oregonian (EO) is a daily newspaper published in Pendleton, Oregon, United States and covering Umatilla and Morrow counties.
KPOJ is a commercial radio station in Portland, Oregon. It airs a sports radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. KPOJ airs two local sports shows on weekdays, Rip City Mornings with Justin Myers from 6 to 9 a.m. and Rip City Drive with Dwight and Chad in afternoon drive time. In middays, KPOJ carries nationally syndicated sports programs: The Rich Eisen Show, The Doug Gottlieb Show and Covino & Rich. The Fox Sports Radio Network is heard nights and weekends. The KPOJ studios are on SW 68th Parkway in Tigard.
The Hillsboro Argus was a twice-weekly newspaper in the city of Hillsboro, Oregon, from 1894 to 2017, known as the Washington County Argus for its final year. The Argus was distributed in Washington County, Oregon, United States. First published in 1894, but later merged with the older, 1873-introduced Forest Grove Independent, the paper was owned by the McKinney family for more than 90 years prior to being sold to Advance Publications in 1999. The Argus was published weekly until 1953, then twice-weekly from 1953 until 2015. In early 2017, it was reported that the paper was planning to cease publication in March 2017. The final edition was that of March 29, 2017.
KKPZ was a radio station broadcasting a religious radio format. Licensed to Portland, Oregon, United States, it served the greater Portland metro area. The station was owned by KPHP Radio, Inc., located in Happy Valley, Oregon.
The Beaverton Valley Times, also known as the Valley Times, is a weekly newspaper covering the city of Beaverton, Oregon, United States, and adjacent unincorporated areas in the northern part of the Tualatin Valley. Owned since 2000 by the Pamplin Media Group, the paper was established in 1921. Currently based in neighboring Portland, the Valley Times is printed each Thursday.
The Bulletin is a newspaper in Bend, Oregon, United States. The Bulletin is owned by EO Media Group.
Binford & Mort Publishing is a book publishing company located in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1930, the company was previously known as Metropolitan Press and Binfords & Mort. At one time they were the largest book publisher in the Pacific Northwest. The privately owned company focuses on books from the Pacific Northwest, and has printed many important titles covering Oregon's history.
The Portland Telegram was a daily newspaper serving Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon from 1877 until it was acquired by, and merged into, the Scripps-owned Portland News in 1931. The News had started out as the East Side News under secretive circumstances in 1906. The Telegram was a Democratic paper, despite its founder being a staunch Republican.
The Central Oregonian is a twice-weekly newspaper published in Prineville in the U.S. state of Oregon.
William W. Knight was an American lawyer, politician, and newspaper publisher. He lived, worked in, and raised a family with his wife, Lota Hatfield Knight, in Portland, Oregon. Their son, Phil Knight, a high school and college athlete, went on to co-found Nike.
The Lincoln County Leader was a weekly American newspaper published in Toledo, Oregon from 1893 to 1987. The newspaper was originally published as a Democratic paper, but its party affiliation changed with the ownership. For many years the newspaper was the primary journal in Lincoln County.
Journalism in the U.S. state of Oregon had its origins from the American settlers of the Oregon Country in the 1840s. This was decades after explorers like Robert Gray and Lewis and Clark first arrived in the region, several months before the first newspaper was issued in neighboring California, and several years before the United States formally asserted control of the region by establishing the Oregon Territory.
The Times-Journal is a newspaper established in 1886, published in Condon in the U.S. state of Oregon.
The East Side News was a newspaper serving Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon, founded in 1906. It was financed by the Scripps-Canfield publishing house of Seattle, but in complete secrecy, due to a promise E. W. Scripps had made to Sam Jackson of the Oregon Journal, not to compete in the Portland market. In spite of low circulation in its early days, the News constructed a building on Clay St. at a cost of $50,000.
The Portland Reporter was a newspaper published in Portland, Oregon, United States in the early 1960s. It was founded by unions, which were calling on Portlanders to cancel their subscriptions to the city's two existing daily newspapers, as a weekly paper. Within a year, with support from various local and national unions, it had begun daily publication. It ceased publication upon the conclusion of the strike.
The Mercury, later The Sunday Mercury, was a weekly newspaper founded in Salem, Oregon in 1869, and moved to Portland a few years later. Oregon writer Homer Davenport described approaching the Mercury when he arrived in Portland as a young man, and being sent to New Orleans to cover and draw pictures of the Fitzsimmons-Dempsey fight.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
