The Daily Gazette

The Daily Gazette
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	The Daily Gazette Co.
Publisher	John E.N. Hume III
Editor	Judith Patrick
Founded	1812
ISSN	1050-0340
Official website	dailygazette.com

For the fictional newspaper, see The Adventure of the Red Circle.

The Daily Gazette, formerly The Schenectady Gazette, is an independently owned daily newspaper based in Schenectady, New York. It debuted in 1812^[1] and mainly covers the counties of Schenectady, Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Fulton, Schoharie, and Montgomery.

The newspaper was formed in 1894 when the Schenectady Printing Association took over a weekly called the Schenectady Gazette and turned it into a daily, renaming it The Daily Gazette in 1895. Despite two other city newspapers - the Evening Star and the Union — the Gazette was successful under the leadership of Gerardus Smith. Describing itself as “independent in politics,” the Gazette claimed by August of 1895 that it had the largest circulation in Schenectady, selling 3,000 papers a day. Smith was one of five children belonging to David Cady Smith, the founder of a Schenectady law firm away back in 1837. Gerardus also studied law, but he seemed better suited for life as a banker and businessman, and it was his brother Everett who followed their father into the family’s law practice. Gerardus became the first president of the renamed Daily Gazette Company in March of 1899, and was followed in that office by Austin N. Liecty in 1917. Earlier, in 1902, the paper bought a new press and began going by the name of its predecessor, the Schenectady Gazette. Liecty, meanwhile, a Smith protege, is the only non-relative to serve as president of the company, his tenure finally coming to an end in 1945. John G. Green, who married Gerardus Smith’s daughter, Eleanor Smith, followed Liecty in the presidency from 1945 to 1964, and then Eleanor served in that capacity from 1965 to 1983, followed by her nephew John E.N. Hume Jr., from 1983 to 1986. His brother David Hume was president from 1986 until 1993, when John’s son, John E.N. (Jack) Hume III, took over the reigns. It was Liecty who in 1924 oversaw the Gazette purchase the property on State Street it had been renting since 1899, and on Jan. 4, 1926, the newspaper rolled off the presses with a “new look.” There was very little done to the Gazette’s appearance over the next five decades until 1984, when, due to a national change in advertising standards, the newspaper went from eight columns to six. On Dec. 30, 1989, the newspaper announced it would become the Daily Gazette, reflecting a commitment to regional coverage that began in 1948. The next five years, 1990 to 1995, were also big ones for the newspaper. Along with moving to its current location on Maxon Road Extension, the company purchased a new press, began using color photos, and launched its first Sunday edition (Sept. 9, 1990). The Daily Gazette was one of the first newspapers in the country to institute a paywall, which limits access to its website to subscribers. Ownership of The Gazette remains with the Hume family and the company is one of the larger privately held newspapers in the state of New York. The board of directors of the company include Elizabeth Hume Lind, president; John E.N. Hume III, vice president; and William S. Hume, secretary/treasurer.

Over the last 20 years, employment at The Gazette has risen and then fallen in line with general trends in the newspaper industry. Currently, The Gazette employs 55 people in the newsroom, including 23 reporters.