The Philadelphia Inquirer

Six months after The Inquirer was founded, with competition from eight established daily newspapers, lack of funds forced Norvell and Walker to sell the newspaper to publisher and United States Gazette associate editor Jesper Harding. After Harding acquired The Pennsylvania Inquirer, it was briefly published as an afternoon paper before returning to its original morning format in January 1830. Under Harding, in 1829, The Inquirer moved from its original location between Front and Second streets to between Second and Third streets. When Harding bought and merged the Morning Journal in January 1830, the newspaper was moved to South Second Street. Ten years later The Inquirer again was moved, this time to its own building at the corner of Third Street and Carter's Alley. Harding expanded The Inquirer's content and the paper soon grew into a major Philadelphian newspaper. The expanded content included the addition of fiction, and in 1840, Harding gained rights to publish several Charles Dickens novels for which Dickens' was paid a significant amount. At the time, the common practice was to pay little or nothing for the rights of foreign authors' works.

Harding retired in 1859 and was succeeded by his son William White Harding, who had become a partner three years earlier. William Harding changed the name of the newspaper to its current name, The Philadelphia Inquirer. Harding, in an attempt to increase circulation, cut the price of the paper, began delivery routes and had newsboys selling the paper on the street. In 1859 circulation had been around 7,000 and by 1863 it had increased to 70,000. Part of the increase was due to the interest in news during the American Civil War. 25,000 to 30,000 copies of the Inquirer were often distributed to Union soldiers during the war and several times the U.S. government asked The Philadelphia Inquirer to issue a special edition specifically for soldiers. The Philadelphia Inquirer supported the Union, but Harding wanted their coverage to remain neutral. Confederate generals often sought copies of the paper, believing that the newspaper's war coverage was accurate.

Inquirer journalist Uriah Hunt Painter was at the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861, a battle which ended in a Confederate victory. Initial reports from the government claimed a Union victory, but The Inquirer went with Painter's first hand account. Crowds threatened to burn The Inquirer's building down because of the negative report. Another negative report, this time about General George Meade, angered Meade enough he punished Edward Crapsey, the reporter who wrote it. Crapsey and other war correspondents later decided to attribute any victories of the Army of the Potomac, Meade's command, to Ulysses S. Grant commander of the entire Union army. Any defeats by the Army of the Potomac would be attributed to Meade.

Daily Circulation

Year	Weekday	Sunday
1936	280,093	369,525
1938	345,422	1,035,871
1968	648,000	905,000
	533,000	995,000
	511,000	996,000
1999	402,000	802,000
2002	373, 892	747,969
	350,457	705,965

During the war, The Inquirer continued to grow with more staff being added and another move into a larger building on Chestnut Street. However, after the war, economic hits combined with Harding becoming ill, hurt The Inquirer. Despite Philadelphia's population growth, distribution fell from 70,000 during the war to 5,000 in 1888. Beginning in 1889, the paper was sold to James Elverson. To bring back the paper, Elverson moved The Inquirer to a new building with the latest printing technology and an increased staff. The "new" Philadelphia Inquirer premiered on March 1 and was successful enough that Elverson started a Sunday edition of the paper. In 1890, in an attempt to increase circulation even further, the price of The Inquirer was cut and the paper's size was increased, mostly with classified advertisements. After five years The Inquirer had to move into a larger building on Market Street and later expanded further into adjacent property.

After Elverson's death in 1911, his son James Elverson Jr. took charge. Under Elverson Jr., the newspaper continued to grow, eventually needing to move again. Elverson Jr. bought land at Broad and Callowhill Streets and built the 18 story Elverson Building, now known as Inquirer-Daily News Building. The first Inquirer issue printed at the building came out on July 13, 1925. Elverson Jr. died a few years later in 1929 and his sister, Eleanor Elverson Patenotre, took over.

Patenotre ordered cuts throughout the paper, but was not really interested in managing The Inquirer and ownership was soon put up for sale. Cyrus Curtis and Curtis-Martin Newspapers Inc. bought the newspaper on March 5, 1930. Curtis died a year later and his son-in-law, John Martin, took charge. Martin merged The Inquirer with another paper, the Philadelphia Public Ledger, but the the Great Depression hurt Curtis-Martin Newspapers and the company defaulted in payments of maturity notes. Ownership returned to the Patenotre family and Elverson Corp. Charles A. Taylor was elected president of The Inquirer Co. and ran the paper until it was sold to Moses L. Annenberg in 1936. During the period between Elverson Jr. and Annenberg The Inquirer stagnated, its editors ignoring most of the poor economic news of the Depression. The lack of growth allowed J. David Stern's newspaper, the Philadelphia Record to surpass The Inquirer in circulation and become the largest newspaper in Pennsylvania.

The Inquirer-Daily News Building on North Broad Street.

Under Moses Annenberg, The Inquirer turned around. Annenberg added new features, increased staff and held promotions to increase circulation. By November, 1938 Inquirer's weekday circulation increased to 345,422 from 280,093 in 1936. During that same period the Record's circulation had dropped from 328,322 to 204,000. In 1939, Annenberg was charged with income tax evasion. Annenberg pleaded guilty before his trial and was sent to prison where he died in 1942. Upon Moses Annenberg's death, his son, Walter Annenberg, took over. Not long after, in 1947, the Record went out of business and The Philadelphia Inquirer became Philadelphia's only daily morning newspaper. While still trailing behind Philadelphia's largest newspaper, the Evening Bulletin, The Inquirer continued to be profitable. In 1948, Walter Annenberg expanded the Inquirer Building with a new structure that housed new printing presses for The Inquirer and, during the 1950s and 60s, Annenberg's other properties, Seventeen and TV Guide. In 1957 Annenberg bought the Philadelphia Daily News and combined the Daily News' facilities with The Inquirer's.

A thirty-eight day strike in 1958 hurt The Inquirer and, after the strike ended, so many reporters had accepted buyout offers and left that the newsroom was noticeably empty. Furthermore, many current reporters had been copyclerks just before the strike and had little experience. One of the few star reporters of the 1950s and 60s was investigative reporter Harry Karafin. During his career Harry Karafin exposed corruption and other exclusive stories for The Inquirer, but also extorted money out of individuals and organizations. Karafin would claim he had harmful information and would demand money in exchange for the information not being made public. This went on from the late 1950s into the early 60s before Karafin was exposed in 1967 and convicted of extortion a year later. By the end of the 1960s, circulation and advertising revenue was in decline and the newspaper had become, according to Time magazine, "uncreative and undistinguished."

In 1969 Annenberg was offered US$55 Million for The Inquirer by Samuel Newhouse, but having made an earlier promise to John S. Knight to offer the paper to him if Annenberg ever put it up for sale, sold it to Knight instead. The Inquirer along with the Philadelphia Daily News, was now a part of Knight Newspapers and its new subsidiary, Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. Five years later, Knight Newspapers merged with Ridder Publications becoming Knight Ridder.

When the The Inquirer was bought, it was understaffed, its equipment was outdated, many of its employees were under skilled and the paper was trailing behind its chief competitor, the Evening Bulletin in weekday circulation. By July 1980 The Inquirer had become the most circulated paper in Philadelphia, and the Evening Bulletin shut down two years later. Eugene L. Roberts Jr., who had become The Inquirer's executive editor in 1972, had turned the newspaper around. Time magazine chose The Inquirer as one of the ten best daily newspapers in the United States, calling Roberts' changes to the paper, "one of the most remarkable turnarounds, in quality and profitability, in the history of American journalism." Between 1975 and 1990 The Inquirer won seventeen Pulitzers, six consecutively between 1975 and 1980, and more journalism awards than any other newspaper in the United States. Along with The Inquirer's success, between 1970 and 1985 the newspaper experienced eleven strikes, the longest lasting forty-six days in 1985. The Inquirer was also criticized for covering "Karachi better than Kensington", but when the Evening Bulletin shut down, The Inquirer increased its staff and increased its coverage to attract former Bulletin readers. By 1989 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.'s editorial staff reached a peak of 721 employees.

The 1990s saw gradually dropping circulation numbers for The Inquirer. This was the result of, according to dissatisfied Inquirer employees, the paper resisting changes that other daily newspapers had already done to keep readers and an emphasis on quantity over quality. In the late 1980s Knight Ridder had become concerned about The Inquirer's profitability and took more of an active role in The Inquirer's operations. The Inquirer was pressured to expand into the more profitable suburbs, but not being able to hire more employees, would have to sacrifice coverage of Philadelphia to do so. The staff of The Inquirer shrunk with some of The Inquirer's best reporters accepting buyouts and leaving for other newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post. By the late 1990s, all of the high level editors who had worked with Eugene Roberts in the 1970s and 80s had left, none at normal retirement age. Since the 1980s, the paper won just one Pulitzer in 1997. In 1998 Inquirer reporter Ralph Cipriano filed a libel suit against Knight Ridder, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Inquirer editor Robert Rosenthal over comments Rosenthal made about Cipriano to The Washington Post. Cipriano had claimed that it was difficult reporting negative stories in The Inquirer about the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Rosenthal later claimed that Cipriano had "a very strong personal point of view and an agenda...He could never prove [his stories]." The suit was later settled out of court in 2001.

Knight Ridder was bought by rival The McClatchy Company in June 2006. The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News were among the twelve less-profitable Knight Ridder newspapers that McClatchy put up for sale when the deal was announced in March. On June 29, 2006 The Inquirer and Daily News were sold to Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C., a group of Philadelphian area business people, including Brian P. Tierney, Philadelphia Media's chief executive. The new owners plan to spend US$5 million on advertisements and promotions to increase The Inquirer's profile and readership.

Politics

A legend about the founding of The Inquirer states that Norvell said, "There could be no better name than The Inquirer. In a free state, there should always be an inquirer asking on behalf of the people: 'Why was this done? Why is that necessary work not done? Why is that man put forward? Why is that law proposed? Why? Why? Why?'"

When Norvell and Walker sold their newspaper to Jesper Harding, Harding kept the paper close to the founder's politics and backed the Democratic Party. However, disagreeing with Andrew Jackson's handling of the Second Bank of the United States he began supporting the anti-Jackson wing of the Democrats. During the 1836 Presidential election Harding supported the Whig party candidate over the Democratic candidate and afterwards The Inquirer became known for its support of Whig candidates. When the American Civil War began The Inquirer supported the Union, but maintained an independent reporting of the war.

Under James Elverson, The Philadelphia Inquirer declared, "the new Inquirer shall be in all respects a complete, enterprising, progressive newspaper, moved by all the wide-awake spirit of the time and behind in nothing of interest to people who want to know what is going on every day and everywhere...steadily and vigorously Republican in its political policy, but just and fair in its treatment of all questions..." During the 1900 Republican convention in Philadelphia, Elverson set up a large electronic banner over Broad Street that declared "Philadelphia Inquirer – Largest Republican Circulation in the World." At the turn of the 20th Century the newspaper began editorial campaigns to improve Philadelphia, including the paving of major streets and stopping a corrupt plan to buy the polluted Schuylkill Canal for drinking water. The newspaper continued similar politics under Elverson Jr., and by the 1920s The Inquirer became know as the "Republican Bible of Pennsylvania".

The sign above the entrance to The Inquirer-Daily News Building.

Between 1929 and 1936, while under Patenotre and Curtis-Martin, The Inquirer continued to support the Republican party and President Herbert Hoover, noticeably by not reporting on the news of the Great Depression. Statistics on unemployment or business closings were ignored, even when they came from the government. When Philadelphia banks began to close, that news was relegated to the back of the financial section. When Moses Annenberg took over The Philadelphia Inquirer, he announced that the paper would "continue to uphold the principals of the Republican party," but in a meeting with newspaper editors shortly after he proposed that the paper go independent and support President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the upcoming election. The editors rejected this idea and the paper remained Republican. In the late 1930s Annenberg disagreed with Roosevelt's New Deal programs and his handling of strikes, which prompted editorials criticizing the policies of Roosevelt and his supporters. He strongly opposed Democratic Pennsylvania governor George Earle and had The Inquirer support the Republican candidates in the 1938 Pennsylvania state elections. When Republicans swept the election there was a celebration at The Inquirer headquarters with red flares and the firing of cannons. The attacks against Democrats and the support given towards Republicans caught the attention of the Roosevelt administration. Annenberg had turned The Philadelphia Inquirer into a major challenger to its chief competitor the Democratic Record, and after Annenberg began focusing on politics, Democratic politicians often attacked Annenberg and accused him of illegal business practices. In 1939 Annenberg was charged with income tax evasion, he pleaded guilty before the trial and sent to prison for three years. Annenberg's friends and his son, Walter, claimed that the whole trial was politically motivated and despite Annenberg actually being guilty, they claimed his sentence was harsher then it should have been.

When the Record shut down in 1947 The Inquirer announced that it was now an independent newspaper and, frustrated with corruption in Philadelphia, supported Democratic candidates in the 1951 election. While Walter Annenberg had made The Inquirer independent he did use the paper to attack people he disliked. Sometimes when a person or group angered Annenberg, they were blacklisted and not mentioned anywhere within The Inquirer. People on the blacklist were even airbrushed out of images. People who were on the list at one point included Nicholas Katzenbach, Ralph Nader, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and the basketball team the Philadelphia Warriors, who were not mentioned for an entire season. In 1966 Walter Annenberg used The Inquirer to attack Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Milton Shapp. During a press conference an Inquirer reporter asked Shapp if he had ever been a patient in a mental hospital, having never been one Shapp said no. The next day's headline in The Inquirer read "Shapp Denies Ever having been in a Mental Home."

Annenberg was a backer and friend of Richard Nixon. In the 1952 presidential election critics later claimed Annenberg had The Inquirer look the other way when covering accusations Nixon was misappropriating funds. Later, to avoid accusations of political bias, Annenberg had The Inquirer use only news agency sources such as the Associated Press for the 1960 and 1968 presidential elections. When Nixon was elected president in 1968, Annenberg was appointed the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James's. A year later when Annenberg sold the newspaper to Knight Newspapers, a part of the deal stipulated that Annenberg's name would appear as Editor and Publisher Emeritus in The Inquirer's masthead. In 1970 Annenberg, already unhappy with changes in the newspaper, had his name removed from the paper after a critical editorial on Richard Nixon appeared.

Under Knight Ridder, The Inquirer continued to be editorially independent. However, conservative blogs and commentators have labeled The Inquirer left leaning. Throughout the 1990s Israel groups, like the Zionist Organization of America, often accused The Inquirer of being anti-Israel. At the same time Edward S. Herman, a University of Pennsylvania media analyst, has written many articles accusing The Inquirer of caving into conservative pressure and including a conservative slant in the paper's reporting. In 2006, The Inquirer became one of the only major United States newspapers to print one of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons. Afterwards, protesting the printing of the cartoon, some Muslims picketed outside The Inquirer-Daily News Building.

When Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C. bought the paper in 2006, Brian P. Tierney and the business people behind the group promised that they would not influence the content of the paper by signing a pledge. Brian P. Tierney, a Republican activist who represented many local groups in the Philadelphia area, criticized The Inquirer in the past on behalf of his clients. The group includes other local business people including Bruce E. Toll, vice chairman of Toll Brothers Inc. Tierney says the group is aware that the fastest way to ruin their investment is to threaten the paper's editorial independence.

The newspaper

The Philadelphia Inquirer is headquartered in The Inquirer-Daily News Building in Center City Philadelphia along with The Philadelphia Daily News. The Inquirer is printed daily, seven days a week at the Schuylkill Printing Plant in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. The Inquirer's editor and executive vice-president is Amanda Bennett. Bennett became The Inquirer's first female editor on June 16, 2003.

The Inquirer is operated by Philadelphia Newspaper L.L.C. which replaced Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. when Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C. bought PNI in 2006. Since 1995, The Inquirer has been available on the internet at Philly.com, which, along with the Philadelphia Daily News and several other regional publications, is part of Philadelphia Newspaper L.L.C. The Inquirer's local coverage covers Philadelphia, southeastern Pennsylvania, and southern New Jersey. The Inquirer maintains bureaus in Washington, D.C.; New York City; Atlanta; Denver; Los Angeles; Pittsburgh; Chicago; Beijing; Moscow; London; Berlin; Cairo; Johannesburg; Trenton, New Jersey, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Conshohocken, Pennsylvania and Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

References

External links

• [The Philadelphia Inquirer Online]
• [Philadelphia Newspapers website]

 

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