''The Gainesville Sun'' () is a

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

published daily in Gainesville, Florida, United States, covering the North-Central portion of the state. The paper is published by Lynni Henderson, the paper's Executive Editor is Douglas Ray and the editorial page editor is Nathan Crabbe.

History

The paper was founded in July 1876 as the ''Gainesville Times'', by brothers E. M. and William Wade Hampton, and was renamed as ''The Gainesville Sun'' in February 1879. The paper was first printed on July 6, 1876. It went through a series of ownership and name changes in the 1880s and 1890s, first being consolidated with Henry Hamilton McCreary's ''Weekly Bee'' as the ''Gainesville Sun and Bee'', then as the ''Gainesville Daily Sun'', and finally back to the ''Gainesville Sun''. It was bought by W.M. Pepper Sr., in 1917 for $50,000, and was published by the Pepper family for three generations, until it was sold to the Cowles Media Company in 1962. During the time it was owned by the Pepper family (specifically in 1922) an editor at the paper openly admitted his membership in the Ku Klux Klan and praised the Klan in print. This attitude helps to explain the editorial published in the paper following the

Rosewood massacre The Rosewood massacre was a racially motivated massacre of black people and the destruction of a black town that took place during the first week of January 1923 in rural Levy County, Florida, United States. At least six black people and two whit ...

justifying the actions of the whites, saying "Let it be understood now and forever that he, whether white or black, who brutally assaults an innocent and helpless woman, shall die the death of a dog." Conversely, the '' Tampa Tribune'' of the time called it "a lasting blot on the people of Levy county", clearly condemning rather than justifying the massacre. In 1971, it was sold to The New York Times Company. On January 6, 2012, ''The Gainesville Sun'' was purchased by

Halifax Media Group Halifax Media Group was an American newspaper company owning more than 30 newspapers in five Southeastern U.S. States. It was founded on March 31, 2010 when a group of investors purchased ''The Daytona Beach News-Journal'' from the Davidson fami ...

. In 2015, Halifax was acquired by

New Media Investment Group Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The website is now known as Gainesville.com. In 2005, it launched ''The Gainesville Guardian'', a weekly paper aimed at East Gainesville and the city's

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

population, to mixed opinions.

Awards

''The Gainesville Sun'' has won two Pulitzer Prizes: publisher John R. Harrison won in 1966 for his campaign for better housing codes, and editorialist Horance G. "Buddy" Davis Jr. won in 1971 for his editorials in support of peaceful desegregation of the local school system.

References

External links

Gainesville.com
''Gainesville Sun'' home page * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gainesville Sun, The Newspapers published in Florida Gainesville, Florida Publications established in 1876 Daily newspapers published in the United States 1876 establishments in Florida Gannett publications