Idaho Statesman
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | The McClatchy Company (since 2006) |
| Publisher | Rebecca Poynter |
| Editor | Rhonda Prast |
| Founded | 1864 (as Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman) |
| Headquarters | 1200 North Curtis Road Boise, Idaho, U.S. |
| Website | idahostatesman.com |
The Idaho Statesman is the daily newspaper of Boise, Idaho, in the western United States. It is owned by The McClatchy Company.
History
The paper was first published as the Idaho Tri-Weekly Statesman on July 26, 1864, by James S. Reynolds; it began publication from a log cabin on the current site of Boise City Hall. Reynolds owned and operated the paper for its first eight years, selling to Judge Milton Kelly in 1872. Kelly's 17-year run ended in 1888, with the expansion to daily publication, and a name change: The Idaho Daily Statesman.
That summer, Kelly sold the paper to the Cobb family—which went on to run the paper for 70 years. Calvin Cobb published the Statesman until his death in 1928, when control was transferred to his daughter Margaret Cobb Ailshie. The paper's history site says "Ailshie insisted on a lively editorial policy, deploring 'a dull newspaper'".[1]
Cobb Ailshie died in 1959, and general manager James Brown took control of the paper. Federated Publications bought the Idaho Statesman in 1963. It joined five other publications in Washington, Indiana, and Michigan. Federated merged with Gannett in 1971. The paper moved to its current home on Curtis Road in Boise in 1972.
Fire
On the early morning of March 21, 2004, the Statesman's pressroom caught on fire, which left two of the newspaper's nine press units severely damaged and two units partially destroyed. Newspapers from other cities chipped in and helped deliver papers to Boise. The cities included Nampa, Homedale, and Twin Falls in Idaho; Ontario, Oregon, and even Reno, Nevada.[2]
Sale
After 34 years of ownership, Gannett agreed to sell the Statesman to Knight Ridder on August 3, 2005, along with The Bellingham Herald and The Olympian newspapers in western Washington; McClatchy bought Knight Ridder the following year.
Outsourced printing
In 2008, the Statesman entered into a strategic partnership with the Idaho Press-Tribune to print the newspaper in Nampa, fifteen miles (25 km) west of Boise. This partnership allowed the Statesman to reduce expenses as well as to better position the company to develop digital platforms to meet the changing preferences of the readers. A decade later in 2018, printing moved to the Times-News in Twin Falls,[3] 120 miles (190 km) southeast of Boise.
Publications
- Idaho Statesman daily newspaper
- Scene weekly entertainment tabloid
- IdahoStatesman.com online news
- Treasure Magazine quarterly lifestyle magazine
- Business Insider weekly business publication
References
- ^ "History of the Idaho Statesman". Idaho Statesman. Archived from the original on March 17, 2006. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
- ^ McMeekin, Tara (May 2004). "Statesman press rebuild rolling along following pressroom fire". Newspapers & Technology. Archived from the original on August 15, 2007. Retrieved February 24, 2018.
- ^ Russell, Betsy Z. (January 12, 2018). "Starting in March, Statesman to be printed in Twin Falls". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). Retrieved May 13, 2018.
External links
- Official website
- Today's Idaho Statesman front page at the Freedom Forum website
- History
- The McClatchy Company's subsidiary profile of the Idaho Statesman
43°36′58″N 116°15′11″W / 43.616°N 116.253°W
