Washington Star

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The Washington Star, previously known as the Washington Star-News and the Washington Evening Star, was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C. between 1852 and 1981. For most of that time it was the city's newspaper of record, and it was the longtime home to columnist Mary McGrory and cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman.

Captain Joseph Borrows Tate founded The Daily Evening Star on December 16, 1852. The following year it was purchased by Texas surveyor and newspaper entrepreneur William Douglas Wallach. Sole owner until 1867, Wallach built the paper up, capitalizing on reporting of the American Civil War. In 1867 Crosby Stuart Noyes, Samuel H. Kauffman, and Adams acquired the paper for $33,333.33 each. The paper would remain family-owned and operated for the next four generations. Its original headquarters was on Washington's "Newspaper Row" on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Clifford K. Berryman, the Washington Post cartoonist who had created the teddy bear in 1902, joined the Star in 1907. His career would continue there until his death in 1949.

The families diversified their interests, purchasing the M. A. Leese Radio Corporation on May 1, 1938 (thus acquiring Washington's oldest radio station, WMAL). Renamed the Evening Star Broadcasting Company, it would figure later in the demise of the newspaper.

The Star's influence and circulation peaked in the 1950s—it constructed a new printing plant in Southeast Washington capable of printing millions of copies—but found itself unable to cope with changing times. The management was closed to new ideas: nearly all top editorial and business staff jobs were held by members of the owning families, including a Kauffman general manager who had gained a reputation for anti-Semitism, driving away advertisers. Suburbanization and television were accelerating the decline of evening newspapers in favor of morning dailies. The Post meanwhile acquired its morning rival, the Times-Herald, in 1954 and steadily drew readers and advertisers away from the falling Star. By the 1960s, the Post was Washington's leading newspaper.

In 1972, the Star purchased and absorbed one of DC's few remaining competing newspapers, The Washington Daily News. For a short period of time after the merger, both "The Evening Star" and "The Washington Daily News" mastheads appeared on the front page. The paper soon was retitled, "Washington Star News" and finally "The Washington Star" by the late 1970's.

In 1973, the Star was targeted for clandestine purchase by interests close to the South African Apartheid government in its propaganda war. The Star, whose editorial policy had always been conservative, was seen as favorable to South Africa at the time.

In early 1975, the owning families sold their interests in the paper to Joseph L. Allbritton, a Texas multimillionaire who was known as a corporate turnaround artist. Allbritton, who also owned Riggs Bank, the most prestigious bank in the capital, planned to use profits from WMAL-AM-FM-TV to shore up the newspaper's finances. The Federal Communications Commission stymied him with rules on media cross-ownership, however; WMAL-AM-FM was sold off in 1977 and the TV station was renamed WJLA-TV.

On October 1, 1975, press operators at the Post went on strike, severely damaging all printing presses before leaving the building. Allbritton would not assist Katharine Graham, the owner of the Post, in any way, refusing to print his rival's papers on the Star's presses, something that would have inevitably caused the Star to be struck as well. Allbritton also had major disagreements with editor Jim Bellows over editorial policy; Bellows left the Star for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. Unable to make the Star profitabile, Allbritton explored other options, including a joint operating agreement with the Post.

On February 2, 1978, Time Inc. purchased the Star for $20 million. Their flagship magazine, Time, was archrival to Newsweek, which was published by the Washington Post Company, and the purchase seemed natural. Mismanagement continued to plague the publication, however. On August 7, 1981, after 130 years, the Washington Star ceased publication. In the bankruptcy sale, the Post purchased the land and buildings owned by the Star, including its printing presses.

Writers who worked at the Star at the time of its closing included Michael Isikoff (Newsweek), Howard Kurtz (Washington Post), Sheilah Kast (ABC News), Steve Aug (ABC), Lisa Myers (NBC), Jane Mayer (New Yorker), Crispin Sartwell (Creators Syndicate), and Maureen Dowd (New York Times), as well as eminences Mary McGrory and James J. Kilpatrick.

1944: Clifford K. Berryman, for Editorial Cartooning, "Where Is the Boat Going?"
1950: James T. Berryman, Editorial Cartooning, for "All Set for a Super-Secret Session in Washington."
1966: Haynes Johnson, for National Reporting, for his distinguished coverage of the civil rights conflict centered about Selma, Alabama, and particularly his reporting of its aftermath.
1974: James R. Polk, National Reporting, for his disclosure of alleged irregularities in the financing of the campaign to re-elect President Nixon in 1972.
1975: Mary McGrory, Commentary, for her commentary on public affairs during 1974
1979: Edwin M. Yoder Jr., Editorial Writing
1981: Jonathan Yardley, Criticism, for book reviews.

References

Bellows, Jim. [The Last Editor: Ben Bradlee and "The Ear"], excerpted from The Last Editor (2002, Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City).
Castro, Janice. "[Washington Loses a Newspaper]," Time Magazine, August 3, 1981.
Graham, Katharine, Personal History, 1997
Klaidman, Stephen. "A Tale of Two Families," The Washington Post, May 9, 1976.
Yoder, Edwin M. "[Star Wars: Adventures in Attempting to Save a Failing Newspaper]," The Virginia Quarterly Review.

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