Intelligencer Journal

	The April 23, 2008 frontpage of the Intelligencer Journal.
Type	Daily, morning
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	Steinman family
Publisher	Lancaster Newspapers, Inc
Editor	Charles Raymond Shaw
Founded	June 17, 1794
Political alignment	Center-left
Headquarters	8 West King Street,; Lancaster, PA 17605; United States
Circulation	44,000
Sister newspapers	Lancaster New Era
ISSN	0889-4140

The Intelligencer Journal, known locally as the Intell, is the daily, morning newspaper published by Lancaster Newspapers, Inc in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It is the 7th oldest newspaper in the United States and one of the oldest newspapers to be continually published under the same name. The Intelligencer Journal's editorial page generally has leaned to the Democratic/liberal perspective. The Intelligencer was merged with its sister newspaper, the Lancaster New Era, in 2009.^[1]

History

The Lancaster Journal, was founded on June 17, 1794 by William Hamilton and Henry Wilcocks as a 4-page, weekly newspaper.^[2] In 1800, Hamilton politically aligned the Journal with the Federalists after buying out Wilcocks and receiving backing from Robert Coleman. In 1799, William Dickson founded a rival paper, the Jeffersonian Lancaster Intelligencer and Weekly Advertiser. In 1820, John Reynolds (father of the Civil War general) succeeded Hamilton and turned the Journal into a Jacksonian paper. After a fire in 1811 and Dickson's death in 1823, popularity of the Intelligencer began to diminish. In 1834, Hugh Maxwell V bought the newspaper from John Reynolds and owned it until Maxwell sold it to John Weiss Forney, who had started as a printer's apprentice with the newspaper in 1830. Maxwell had previously owned and published the Lancaster Gazette and Port-Folio.^[3]

Forney and Steinman

In 1839, Forney took over the Intelligencer and "turned it around".^[2] In September 1839, Forney bought the Journal merged it with the Intelligencer making the Intelligencer and Journal. After Forney left Lancaster in 1845, George Sanderson ran the paper and used it to become mayor of Lancaster. During the Civil War, circulation fell due to the Intelligencer and Journal's anti-Republican tone. In August 1864, the paper was changed from a weekly to a daily, evening paper. By the end of the war, circulation was down to only a few hundred.^[2] In 1866, Andrew Jackson Steinman reluctantly took control of the paper, with co-owner Henry Smith and attorney William Uhler Hensel actually running the paper. In 1886, Hensel retired and Steinman's nephew Charles Steinman Foltz took his place. On 1909-07-01, Steinman and Foltz started the non-partisan Lancaster Morning Journal, which they merged with the Morning News creating the News Journal. Steinman's sons, John Frederick Steinman and James Hale Steinman, took over the papers in 1917 after the death of their father.

Newspaper war

In 1923, Paul Block, Sr. (founder of Block Communications) bought the Intelligencer's rival paper, the Lancaster New Era and "vowed to put the Intelligencer and the News Journal out of business".^[2] Block added a daily, four-page, colored comics section to the New Era. The Steinmans lowered advertising rates and started the Sunday News, the first local Sunday newspaper. Circulation of the Intelligencer increased from 6,000 to 30,000 in early 1927.^[2] The Steinmans then built a new five-story building for the paper on West King Street to show that "they were here to stay".^[2] In 1928, Block announced his surrender and offered the New Era to the Steinmans. They bought the New Era and merged the Intelligencer with the News Journal to create the Intelligencer Journal.