''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 poli ...

published daily in

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, United States, and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with a population of 145,212 in 2022. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gainesv ...

, United States, covering the North-Central portion of the state.

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 The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

and praised the Klan in print. This attitude helps to explain the editorial published in the paper following the Rosewood massacre 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 The New York Times Company is an American mass media corporation that publishes ''The New York Times'' and its associated publications such as ''The New York Times International Edition'' and other media properties. The New York Times Company's ...

. On January 6, 2012, ''The Gainesville Sun'' was purchased by Halifax Media Group. In 2015, Halifax was acquired by New Media Investment Group. An online edition was launched in 1995, initially called ''SunOne'', and later simply ''GainesvilleSun.com''. 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 known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

population, to mixed opinions.

Awards

''The Gainesville Sun'' has won two

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

s: 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 Newspapers established in 1876 Daily newspapers published in the United States 1876 establishments in Florida Gannett publications