The Providence Journal - History

History

The newspaper began publishing as The Providence Daily Journal in 1832. In 1868, the Journal began to publish the afternoon paper The Evening Bulletin. In 1872 the first diner in America, a horse-drawn wagon serving hot food, was founded to serve the employees of the Providence Journal. The Journal dropped "Daily" from its name and became The Providence Journal in 1920. In 1992, the Bulletin was discontinued and its name was appended onto that of the morning paper: The Providence Journal-Bulletin. After beginning online service in 1995, the Journal established projo.com in 1996. In 1998, the paper's name was shortened back to The Providence Journal.

The Journal bills itself as "America's oldest daily newspaper in continuous publication," a distinction that comes from the fact that The Hartford Courant, started in 1764, did not become a daily until 1837 and The New York Post, which began daily publication in 1801, had to suspend publication during strikes in 1958 and 1978.

The paper's history has reflected the waxing and waning of newspaper popularity throughout the United States.

During its heyday, the Journal had news bureaus throughout Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, a trend that had been inaugurated in 1925 by then-managing editor Sevellon Brown. Bureaus in Westerly, South Kingstown, Warwick, West Warwick, Greenville, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Newport, Bristol/Warren, Attleboro and Fall River were designed to make sure that reporters were only 20 minutes away from breaking news.

The paper also had a variety of regional editions, which it called zones, that focused on city and town news. The system produced an intense focus on local news typically seen only in small-town newspapers. For example, everyone who died in the Journal's coverage area, rich or poor, received a free staff-written obituary.

But in the 1990s, those rising production costs and declines in circulation prompted the Journal to consolidate both the bureaus and the editions. (The paper, in an attempt to raise revenue, began charging for obituaries on January 4, 2005.) The editors tried to reinvigorate the coverage of city and town news in 1996, but competition from the Internet added fuel to the decline. The paper's last Massachusetts edition, for example, was published on March 10, 2006.

On Oct. 10, 2008 the paper stopped publishing all of its zoned editions in Rhode Island and laid off 33 news staffers, including three managers. Even during the Great Depression, the Journal had not terminated news staff to cut costs.

The next few years included an extensive campaign to make the Internet version of the paper profitable. The Journal aggressively marketed its news on the web, pushing to get detailed stories onto its website, projo.com, before competing radio, television and other print outlets. But circulation continued to decline and online advertising failed to compensate.

On Oct. 18, 2011 with circulation down to about 94,000 on weekdays and 129,000 on Sundays (down from 164,000 and over 231,000 in 2005), the Journal renamed its website providencejournal.com, a move which meant that most of the previously Internet links to its content no longer worked. It also began implementing a system to require online readers to pay for content. Interactive images of its newspaper pages were initially available on personal computers and the iPad for free. The paywall was put in place on February 28, 2012.