Cincinnati Enquirer

''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' is a morning daily newspaper published by Gannett in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. First published in 1841, the ''Enquirer'' is the last remaining daily newspaper in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, although the daily ''Journal-News'' competes with the ''Enquirer'' in the northern suburbs. The ''Enquirer'' has the highest circulation of any print publication in the Cincinnati metropolitan area. A daily local edition for Northern Kentucky is published as ''The Kentucky Enquirer''.

''The Enquirer'' won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting for its project titled "Seven Days of Heroin".

In addition to the ''Cincinnati Enquirer'' and ''Kentucky Enquirer'', Gannett publishes a variety of print and electronic periodicals in the Cincinnati area, including 16 '' Community Press'' weekly newspapers, 10 ''Community Recorder'' weekly newspapers, and ''OurTown'' magazine. The ''Enquirer'' is available online at the ' website.

Content

The ''Enquirer'' is now regarded as a conservative, Republican-leaning newspaper, in contrast to '' The Cincinnati Post,'' a former competing daily.

In the 1864 presidential election, the newspaper opposed the reelection of Abraham Lincoln. On his second inauguration the paper wrote, "Mr. Lincoln commences today, a second term unfettered by constitutional restraint as if he were the Czar of Russia or the Sultan of Turkey." From 1920 to 2012, the editorial board endorsed every Republican candidate for United States president. By contrast, the current editorial board claims to take a pragmatic editorial stance. According to editor Peter Bhatia, "It is made up of pragmatic, solution-driven members who, frankly, don’t have much use for extreme ideologies from the right or the left. ... The board’s mantra in our editorials has been about problem-solving and improving the quality of life for everyone in greater Cincinnati." On September 24, 2016, the ''Enquirer'' endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, its first endorsement of a Democrat for president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

''The Kentucky Enquirer'' consists of an additional section wrapped around the ''Cincinnati Enquirer'' and a remade Local section. The front page is remade from the Ohio edition, although it may contain similar elements.

Reader-submitted content is featured in six zoned editions of ''Your HomeTown Enquirer'', a local news insert published twice-weekly on Thursdays and Saturdays in Hamilton, Butler, Warren, and Clermont counties.

Since September 2015, the ''Enquirer'' and local Fox affiliate WXIX-TV have partnered on news gathering and have shared news coverage and video among the paper, broadcasts, and online media. In 2016, the ''Enquirer'' launched a true crime podcast called Accused that reached the top of iTunes' podcasts chart.

Under then-editor Peter Bhatia, the ''Enquirer'' became the first newsroom in the nation to dedicate a reporter to covering the heroin epidemic full time. That reporter, Terry DeMio, and reporter Dan Horn helped lead a staff of about 60 journalists to report the heroin project that won the newspaper its second Pulitzer Prize. The award was the first the newsroom won for its reporting, but its second win overall. The first Pulitzer win was awarded to Jim Borgman for editorial cartoons in 1991.

History

Early years

The ''Enquirer''s predecessor was the ''Phoenix'', edited by Moses Dawson as early as 1828. It later became the ''Commercial Advertiser'' and in 1838 the ''Cincinnati Advertiser and Journal''. By the time John and Charles Brough purchased it and renamed it the ''Daily Cincinnati Enquirer'', it was considered a newspaper of record for the city. The ''Enquirer''s first issue, on April 10, 1841, consisted of "just four pages of squint-inducing text that was, at times, as ugly in tone as it was in appearance". It declared its staunch support for the Democratic Party, in contrast to the three Whig papers and two ostensibly independent papers then in circulation. A weekly digest edition for regional farmers, the ''Weekly Cincinnati Enquirer'', began publishing on April 14 and would continue until November 25, 1843, as ''The Cincinnati Weekly Enquirer''.

In November 1843, the ''Enquirer'' merged with the ''Daily Morning Message'' to become the ''Enquirer and Message'' (the ''Daily Enquirer and Message'' beginning in May 1844). In January 1845, the paper dropped the ''Message'' name, becoming ''The Cincinnati Daily Enquirer''. Finally, in May 1849, the paper became ''The Cincinnati Enquirer''.

McLean ownership and Washington trust

In 1844, James J. Faran took an interest in the ''Enquirer''. In 1848, Washington McLean and his brother S. B. Wiley McLean acquired an interest in the ''Enquirer''.

On March 22, 1866, a gas leak caused Pike's Opera House to explode, taking with it the ''Enquirer'' offices next door. A competitor, the '' Cincinnati Daily Times'', allowed the ''Enquirer'' to print on its presses in the wake of the disaster. As a result, the ''Enquirer'' missed only one day of publication. However, archives of the paper's first 25 years were lost.

Washington McLean was a leading Copperhead whose editorial policies led to the suppression of the paper by the United States government during the Civil War. After the war, McLean pursued an anti- Republican stance. One of his star writers was Lafcadio Hearn, who wrote for the paper from 1872 to 1875. James W. Faulkner served as the paper's political correspondent, covering the Ohio State Legislature and Statehouse, from 1887 until his death in 1923. The ''Faulkner Letter'' was a well-known column often carried in regional newspapers.

In the 1860s, Washington McLean bought out Faran's interest in the ''Enquirer''. In 1872, he sold a half interest in the newspaper to his son, John Roll McLean, who assumed full ownership of the paper in 1881. He owned the paper until his death in 1916. Having little faith in his only child, Ned, John Roll McLean put the ''Enquirer'' and another paper he owned, ''The Washington Post'', in trust with the American Security and Trust Company of Washington, D.C., as trustee. Ned successfully broke the trust regarding ''The Post'', an action that led to its bankruptcy and eventual sale to Eugene Meyer in 1933. The ''Enquirer'', however, continued to be held in trust until 1952.

In the 1910s, the ''Enquirer'' was known for an attention-getting style of headline in which individual words or phrases cascaded vertically, beginning with a single word in large type. According to a 1912 college textbook on newspaper making, "The ''Enquirer'' has printed some masterpieces replete with a majesty of diction that is most artistic; but there are few papers that can imitate it successfully." During the 1930s and 1940s, the ''Enquirer'' was widely regarded among newspapers for its innovative and distinctive typography.

In the 1920s, the ''Enquirer'' ran a promotion that offered a free plot of land near Loveland, Ohio, along the Little Miami River, after paying for a one-year subscription to the daily. The Loveland Castle was built on two such plots. The surrounding community is now known as Loveland Park.

By the late 1940s, sales of the ''Enquirer'', Cincinnati's last remaining morning daily, had increased dramatically, fueled in part by the success of its Sunday morning monopoly; meanwhile, '' The Cincinnati Post'' and especially '' The Cincinnati Times-Star'' faced a declining afternoon market.

Employee ownership

In February 1952, '' The Cincinnati Times-Star'' offered to buy the ''Enquirer'' from the American Security and Trust Company for $7.5 million. In response, the 845 employees of the paper pooled their assets, formed a committee, and obtained loans to successfully outbid the ''Times-Star'' with an offer of $7.6 million, with the Portsmouth Steel Company as their agent. The deal closed on June 6, 1952. In its first year under employee ownership, the ''Enquirer'' reported a net earnings of $349,421.

Scripps ownership

The employees lacked sufficient capital and managerial expertise to run the paper. City editor John F. Cronin led a revolt against management on November 25, 1955; he was fired the following month. Beset by financial problems and internal strife, they sold the paper to The E. W. Scripps Company, owner of '' The Cincinnati Post'', on April 26, 1956. Scripps purchased a 36.5% controlling interest in the ''Enquirer'' for $4,059,000, beating out The Times-Star Company's $2,380,051 and Tribune Publishing's $15 per share, or $2,238,000. Two years later, Scripps also acquired the ''Times-Star'', merging the afternoon paper with the ''Post''.

With the ''Times-Star'' and ''Enquirer'' acquisitions, the Scripps family owned all of Cincinnati's dailies, along with WCPO-AM, WCPO-FM, and WCPO-TV. The E. W. Scripps Company operated the ''Enquirer'' at arm's length, even omitting the Scripps lighthouse logo from the ''Enquirer'''s nameplate. Nevertheless, the United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust suit against the company in 1964.

Gannett ownership and joint operating agreement

In 1968, Scripps entered into a consent decree to sell the ''Enquirer''. It was sold to influential Cincinnati millionaire Carl Lindner Jr.'s American Financial Corporation on February 20, 1971. In turn, Lindner sold the ''Enquirer'' to a Phoenix-based company of his, Combined Communications, in 1975, for $30 million plus 500,000 shares of common stock and 750,000 shares of common stock warrants in Combined Communications. Combined Communications merged with Gannett Company

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