''The Virginian-Pilot'' is the daily

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 ...

for

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond, and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point near whe ...

, Virginia. Commonly known as ''The Pilot'', it is Virginia's largest daily. It serves the five cities of South Hampton Roads as well as several smaller towns across southeast Virginia and northeast North Carolina. It was a locally owned, family enterprise from its founding in 1865 at the close of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

until its sale to

Tribune Publishing Tribune Publishing Company (briefly Tronc, Inc.) is an American newspaper print and online media publishing company. The company, which was acquired by Alden Global Capital in May 2021, has a portfolio that includes the ''Chicago Tribune'', t ...

in 2018. Its headquarters is in Newport News, and prior to 2020 was in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. The ''Virginian-Pilot'' is owned by parent company Tribune Publishing. This company was acquired by

Alden Global Capital Alden Global Capital is a hedge fund based in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 2007 by Randall D. Smith, and is a division of Smith Management LLC. Its managing director is Heath Freeman. By mid-2020, Alden had stakes in roughly two ...

, which operates its media properties through

Digital First Media MNG Enterprises, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado, United States–based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. As of May 2021, it owns over 100 newspapers and 200 ass ...

, in May 2021.

Pulitzer Prizes

The newspaper has won three Pulitzer Prizes. The first was won in 1929 by editor Louis Jaffe, who received the

Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing The Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism. It has been awarded since 1917 for distinguished editorial writing, the test of excellence being clearness of style, ...

for " An Unspeakable Act of Savagery", an editorial which condemned

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of i ...

. Jaffe mentored the paper's next editor, Lenoir Chambers, who in 1960 received the same prize for his editorials on

desegregation Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation), leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws ...

, as exemplified by " The Year Virginia Closed the Schools" and " The Year Virginia Opened the Schools". The paper was one of the few in Virginia to publicly support the end of

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced racial segregation, " Jim Crow" being a pejorative term for an African American. The last of the ...

. In 1985, Thomas Turcol was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting for his coverage of

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...

in Chesapeake. Reporters at ''The Pilot'' have also finished as Pulitzer finalists three times since 2007.

History

''The Virginian-Pilot'' and its sister afternoon edition, the ''Ledger-Star'' (which ceased publication in 1995) were created by Samuel L. Slover as the result of several mergers of papers dating back to 1865.Hays, Jakon, and Maureen Watts
"Pilot Media History"
. Retrieved 2017-04-03. ''The Virginian-Pilot'' covered the

Wright brothers The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...

' early flights. Slover's nephew Frank Batten Sr. became publisher at age 27 in 1954. He expanded the ''Virginian-Pilot''s parent company, which soon evolved into Landmark Communications and later

Landmark Media Enterprises Landmark Media Enterprises, LLC (a spinoff of Landmark Communications, Inc.) is a privately held technology company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia. History The ''Norfolk Landmark'' was established in 1873. It had various editors. K. C. Murray ...

, by acquiring other newspapers and radio and television stations and by creating

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel ...

, now owned by a group of investors led by

NBC Universal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 ...

. In Norfolk, on September 1, 1923, the company founded Virginia's first

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

, WTAR. In 1950 it added Channel 4 WTAR-TV (now Channel 3 WTKR) and in 1961, it

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

95.7 WTAR-FM (now

WVKL WVKL (95.7 FM broadcasting, FM) – branded ''95-7 R&B'' – is a commercial urban adult contemporary Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to serve Norfolk, Virginia. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station services the Hampton Roads region, a ...

). The paper was among the first available online as a part of the Compuserve experiment in early 1980s where the paper and 10 others around the country transmitted text versions of stories daily to

Compuserve CompuServe, Inc. (CompuServe Information Service, Inc., also known by its initialism CIS or later CSi) was an American Internet company that provided the first major commercial online service provider, online service. It opened in 1969 as a times ...

's host computers in Ohio. Frank Batten Jr. became publisher in 1991 and expanded on digitizing the paper. In 1993 ''The Virginian-Pilot'' was one of the first newspapers in the country to launch a sister website, Pilotonline.com. Batten Jr. stepped down as the paper's publisher, becoming Landmark Communications' Chairman and CEO. "Dee" Carpenter became publisher in 1995, followed by Bruce Bradley in 2005, Maurice Jones in 2008, David Mele in 2012 and Patricia Richardson in 2014. The paper published a podcast in 2017
The Shot
was created by reporters Gary Harki and Joanne Kimberlin and dealt with the unsolved 2010 murder of Norfolk police officer Victor Decker. After ''The Pilot'' was sold to Tronc in 2018, no new publisher was named. Marisa Porto was named the newspaper's editor, but she left the next year. Interim General Manager Par Ridder said a search would begin for a new editor for the newsroom and a new general manager to oversee the business side of the newspaper. Kris Worrell was named by Ridder as ''The Pilot''s editor on July 22, 2019. She had previously been the executive editor of ''

The Press of Atlantic City ''The Press of Atlantic City'' is the fourth-largest daily newspaper in New Jersey. Originally based in Pleasantville, New Jersey, Pleasantville, it is the primary newspaper for southeastern New Jersey and the Jersey Shore. The Designated marke ...

''. Worrell graduated from Kempsville High in Virginia Beach and worked previously both for ''The Pilot'' and the ''Daily Press''.

Offices and corporate

The paper's offices are shared with its sister paper, the ''Daily Press'' and are located at 703 Mariners Row, Newport News, VA 23606. It is in the City Center at Oyster Point complex. Both papers are owned by Tribune Publishing. Beginning circa 1937, the headquarters were in Norfolk. In 2020, the newspaper moved, as Monument Companies bought the Norfolk complex for $9,500,000. This complex became Pilot Place, an apartment complex. The new headquarters in Newport News was already the offices of the ''Daily Press'', which was the lessee.

Prices

Since December, 2014, the ''Pilot''s single copy prices are: $1 Daily, $2.50 Sunday/

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...

Sale to Tribune Publishing

On May 29, 2018, ''The Virginian-Pilot'' was purchased by Chicago-based media conglomerate Tribune Publishing, formerly known as Tronc, for a cash price of $34 million. The deal included the ''Pilot'' and all of its "outstanding interests" — including its subsidiary publications, the paper's Norfolk headquarters and its printing plant in Virginia Beach.

References

External links

The Virginian-Pilot
{{DEFAULTSORT:Virginian-Pilot, The Daily newspapers published in Virginia Mass media in Norfolk, Virginia Mass media in Newport News, Virginia Pulitzer Prize–winning newspapers Newspapers established in 1869 1869 establishments in Virginia Newspapers published in Virginia