Ashland Daily Tidings

History

On June 17, 1876, James M. Sutton founded the Ashland Tidings. At the time Ashland, Oregon had a population of 500. In his first editorial, Sutton wrote "Believing that there is ample room in southern Oregon for a good independent family newspaper, we have resolved to make our effort to establish such a one."

Sutton's health declined after a few issues. J. M. McCall then managed the paper followed by Capt. O. C. Applegate becoming publisher in 1878. A year later William Leeds and Corliss Merritt purchased the paper. Merritt soon sold out to Leeds and years later he sold his interest to longtime employee Fred D. Wagner in 1894. Wagner installed the paper's first linotype machine in 1908.

In March 1911, R. B. Bennett purchased the paper and ran it with his brother. He was a Yale University graduate who had worked for two years at the paper as a court reporter and telegraph editor. About nine months later Bennett sold the Tidings to Bert R. Greer*.* He died in 1926 and his widow Lillian Harris Greer owned the paper until her death in 1945. During her tenure the paper was edited and managed by G. M. Green. Graham M. Dean, publisher of the Reno Gazette, purchased the paper in 1950. He bought it from Green, trustee for paper's three owners.

Edd Ellsworth Rountree purchased the paper in 1960. Rountree published if for a decade and became known statewide for his popular "Friday Fish Fry" column on politics and current events which appeared on front page with a caricature above noting his opinion. Rountree sold the paper in 1970 to the Democrat-Herald Publishing Co, which published the Albany Democrat-Herald. Capital Cities purchased the company in 1980, which itself was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 1995. Disney sold its Oregon newspapers to Lee Enterprises in 1997. Lee sold the Daily Tidings to the Dow Jones & Company in 2002. The paper were managed by Local Media Group, another subsidiary of the international company News Corp.

On September 4, 2013, News Corp announced that it would sell Local Media Group to Newcastle Investment Corp., an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, for $87 million. The newspapers were to be operated by GateHouse Media, a newspaper group owned by Fortress. News Corp CEO and former Wall Street Journal editor Robert James Thomson indicated that the newspapers were "not strategically consistent with the emerging portfolio" of the company. GateHouse in turn filed prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 27, 2013, to restructure its debt obligations in order to accommodate the acquisition.

In 2017, the Tidings and the Mail Tribune were sold by GateHouse to Rosebud Media. On July 15, 2021, the owner of the Daily Tidings announced the paper would be replaced with an Ashland Edition of the Mail Tribune starting in August. Two years later the Tribune ceased on January 13, 2023. Soon after the ''Tidings''' web domain was purchased by scammers who relaunched the website with articles written with Generative AI and sometimes featuring stolen bylines.

Awards

The Tidings was one of three daily newspapers to win the Charles Sprague Award of General Excellence from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association in 1981. In 2006 the Daily Tidings was awarded the "General Excellence" prize by the ONPA. In 2015, it won five awards including a first place for best educational coverage from the ONPA.

References

References

1. Lozar, Patrick. "Ashland Tidings". University of Oregon.
2. Njus, Elliot. (January 11, 2023). "Mail Tribune, storied newspaper in Medford, to abruptly shut down". [[The Oregonian/OregonLive]].
3. (13 December 2024). "Defunct Oregon newspaper revived with stories plagiarized by AI {{!}} Worth Your Time". Tegna Inc..
4. (March 17, 1876). "Notice". The Albany Register.
5. (March 6, 1876). "Oregon.". The Oregonian.
6. Turnbull, George S.. (1939). "[[wikisource:en:History of Oregon Newspapers". [[Binfords and Mort]].
7. (March 15, 1911). "Ashland Tidings Sold {{!}} Portland Men Take Charge of Established Paper". Morning Register.
8. (December 2, 1911). "Asland Tidings Is Sold {{!}} Oklahoma Newspaperman Buys Paper From New Owners.". The Oregonian.
9. (July 2, 1945). "Rites Monday for Widow of Editor".
10. (December 18, 1950). "Ashland Tidings Sold to Publisher Of Reno Paper". The Oregon Daily Journal.
11. (December 18, 1950). "Reno Publisher Buys Paper at Ashland". Albany Democrat-Herald.
12. (January 4, 1960). "Ashland Daily Tidings Sold to Ex-Californian". Medford Mail Tribune.
13. (June 11, 1985). "Retired Ashland Publisher Dies at 67". The Oregonian.
14. (March 4, 1970). "Albany Company Acquires Lebanon, Ashland Papers". The Capital Journal.
15. (July 14, 1980). "Paper sale should be final today". Albany Democrat-Herald.
16. Geraldine Fabrikant. (5 January 1996). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS;Disney and ABC Shareholders Solidly Approve Merger Deal". [[The New York Times]].
17. (September 9, 1997). "Lee Enterprises closes purchase of Oregon newspapers from ABC". The Oregonian.
18. (October 2, 2002). "Dow Jones to buy two Oregon papers". Albany Democrat-Herald.
19. Rafter, Michelle V.. (January 31, 2009). "Good news for small papers". Oregon Business.
20. Frank, Christine. (September 4, 2013). "News Corp. sells 33 papers to New York investors". New York Business Journal.
21. (September 27, 2013). "GateHouse Files for Bankruptcy as Part of Fortress Plan". Bloomberg.
22. Stiles, Greg. (January 31, 2017). "Updated: Mail Tribune and Daily Tidings sold to Rosebud Media". Mail Tribune.
23. Saslow, Steven. (July 15, 2021). "The Time is Now. Changes to the Mail Tribune and Ashland Tidings". [[Mail Tribune]].
24. Haas, Ryan. (December 9, 2024). "AI slop is already invading Oregon's local journalism".
25. Colby, Richard. (July 11, 1981). "Publishers Honor Frohnmayer". The Oregonian.
26. "2006 Better Newspaper Contest".
27. [https://www.mailtribune.com/top-stories/2016/07/24/ashland-daily-tidings-earns-5-awards-from-publishers-group/Ashland Daily Tidings earns 5 awards from publishers' group], ''[[Mail Tribune]]'', July 24, 2016. Retrieved May 24,2022.