''The Marshall Islands Journal'' is a bilingual

weekly newspaper Weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electronic publishing, digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly newspap ...

published in the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 c ...

. Founded in 1970, it is the sole newspaper in the country and has a circulation of approximately 2,000 copies each week as of 2018. It is published in English and Marshallese.

History

''The Marshall Islands Journal'' was co-founded in 1970 as the ''Micronitor'' by Joe Murphy and Mike Malone, two American

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an Independent agency of the U.S. government, independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. It was established in Marc ...

volunteers without any previous experience in journalism. Publication began in Malone's home, with the first copy released on February 13, 1970. The name changed to the ''Micronesian Independent'' and then ''The Marshall Islands Journal'' shortly afterward, and they moved into a new building, where construction had begun in 1969. Murphy became the head of the newspaper. The newspaper benefited from the lack of competition, and its early criticism of Micronesian politicians and the American

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1994. The Imperial Japanese South Seas Mandate had been seized by the U.S. during the Pacifi ...

gave it credibility among the Marshallese public. It has been especially critical of earlier American nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands such as

Castle Bravo Castle Bravo was the first in a series of high-yield thermonuclear weapon design tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as part of ''Operation Castle''. Detonated on 1 March 1954, the device remains the most powe ...

. Murphy hired

Giff Johnson Giff Johnson is a Marshall Islands-based editor and journalist. He is also the author of the self-published book ''Don't Ever Whisper'', which tells of his late wife Darlene Keju's fight to share the Marshall Islanders plight with the rest of th ...

as a reporter for the paper shortly after Johnson's immigration to the country in 1984. Johnson became editor-in-chief four months later. Murphy coined the slogan "world's worst newspaper" in the 1990s as a response to what he felt were insufficient slogans of other newspapers, bringing it international attention. ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' commented on ''The Marshall Islands Journal'' in its 1994 list of worst newspapers, describing it as "first-class". Murphy rejected this praise, saying that he "must have sent

he Boston Globe He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter call ...

the wrong issues". The paper has covered

climate change in the Marshall Islands Climate change in the Marshall Islands is a major issue for the country. As with many Effects of climate change on small island countries, countries made up of low-lying islands, the Marshall Islands is highly vulnerable to sea level rise and other ...

with increasing frequency since 1992, eventually leading to weekly content on the issue. Murphy retired from the paper in 2019 as his health declined.

Publication and circulation

''The Marshall Islands Journal'' is privately owned. As of 2018, it is staffed by approximately 20 people with a 60-year-old printing press. As the Marshall Islands is isolated from much of the world, ''The Marshall Islands Journal'' must order supplies such as paper several months in advance. The paper is bilingual, with publications in both English and Marshallese. It had a circulation of approximately 3,000 copies weekly in 2004, and 2,000 in 2018. Most copies are circulated in the capital,

Majuro Majuro (; Marshallese language, Marshallese: ' ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak Chain, Ratak ( ...

, while many are flown to Kwajalein each week. It has an additional online subscriber readership of a few hundred readers, including several members of the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

, which uses the paper as a major source of information on the Marshall Islands.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall Islands Journal Bilingual newspapers English-language newspapers published in Oceania Newspapers established in 1970