The Post and Courier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 The July 27, 2005 front page of The Post and Courier |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Evening Post Publishing Company |
| Founded | Charleston Courier-1803 Charleston Daily News-1865 News & Courier-1873 The Evening Post-1894 The Post and Courier-1991 |
| Headquarters | 134 Columbus Street Charleston, SC 29403 United States |
| Official website | POSTANDCOURIER.COM |
Charleston's The Post and Courier is the oldest daily newspaper in the South and the eighth oldest newspaper still in publication in the United States. It traces its ancestry to three newspapers, the Charleston Courier, founded in 1803, the Charleston Daily News, founded 1865, and The Evening Post, founded 1894. Along with The Greenville News and Columbia's The State, it is one of the three largest papers in the Palmetto State.
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[edit] History
The Charleston Courier, founded in 1803, and Charleston Daily News, founded in 1865, merged to form the News & Courier in 1873, then merged with The Evening Post — founded in 1894 — in 1991, forming The Post & Courier.
The founder of the Courier, Aaron Smith Willington, came from Massachusetts with newspaper experience. In the early 19th century, he was known to row out to meet ships from London, Liverpool, Havre, and New York to get the news earlier than other Charleston papers. He also had a translator working for him, so he could copy items from the Havana newspapers.
Through the 1990s The Evening Post Publishing Company, which now publishes The Post and Courier, acquired a number of other daily and weekly newspapers, and television stations.
[edit] Awards
In 2008, the newspaper won national awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and American Society of Newspaper Editors for coverage of the Charleston Sofa Super Store fire.[1] In 2008, Reporter Tony Bartelme also won the prestigious Gerald Loeb Award for a story about the effect of China's growth on local economies.[2]
[edit] Circulation Figures
The reported numbers for The Post and Courier's circulation as of March 31, 2008 were 94,716 daily and 110,289 on Sunday.[1]
But with the advent of new news sources (e.g. the internet) many daily papers and publications in the USA are struggling to move with the times and maintain a solid readership. At the start of 2009, the P&C's circulation figures were down to 85,845 for dailies, and 95,378 for Sundays - a full 10% down on the previous years figures.
[edit] Declining Sales & Layoffs
Due to the decline in readerhship, the paper offered a buyout programme to the majority of its employees in 2008, where 64 full time employees left in an attempt to streamline the company and save money long term. This brought the headcount down to 381 by the start of 2009.
On February 6th 2009, 25 more layoffs were announced - a further sign of the decline in the paper and its financial status.
On March 23rd 2009, Evening Post Publishing Co. - the parent company of the paper - announced that a company-wide furlough plan would take place in the second quarter of 2009 - employees having to take five days of unpaid leave, in another attempt to save the company money. The official line was that the move is necessary "because of the continued weakness of the economy and the impact on advertising."
The price of the weekday paper rose from 50 cents to 75 cents on April 13th 2009.
On the 6th November 2009, a one sentence story on their website simply read "The Post and Courier today eliminated 23 positions throughout the building, including seven that were unfilled, in an effort to cut expenses during continued economic weakness that is impacting advertising", thus sixteen more people lost their jobs.
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Circ for Newspaper". http://abcas3.accessabc.com/ecirc/newsform.asp. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
