Frank Gannett - The Rise of Media Mogul

The Rise of Media Mogul

In the summer of 1898, Gannett joined the Syracuse Herald news staff, but quickly decided to forgo this job in favor of returning to Cornell for his Master’s Degree. Upon his return, Frank was bombarded with requests for his news about Cornell from the newspapers clients he had served as an undergraduate. Ironically, Gannett became so busy meeting these demands that he never found time to register for graduate classes that fall. He would return to Cornell the following year determined to complete his graduate degree, but would not stay for long. In the early weeks of 1899, Gannett was offered the secretarial position for William McKinley’s Commission to visit the Philippines, and by March he arrived in Manila. Frank would stay in the Philippines for a year, learning of foreign politics and culture. Upon his return, Gannett accepted a job as city editor for the Ithaca News. He would also become editor of the Pittsburg Index in 1905.

1906 was a defining moment in Gannett’s life. That year, at the age of 29, Gannett would become half owner of the daily newspaper the Elmira Gazette. Within the year, Gannett would merge the Elmira Gazette and Elmira Star forming the Elmira Star-Gazette, which is still in circulation. Throughout his career, Gannett would be known as “The Great Hyphenator.” The media magnate was known to buy and merge money-losing dailies to create profit. Six years later, in 1912 the partners also purchased the Ithaca Journal. Gannett would stay in Elmira until 1918, when he and his partner, Erwin Davenport turned their sights to Rochester, NY where a “politico-journalistic dog fight” between three evening newspapers caught their eye. Gannett and his partner sought to buy The Union and Advertiser and the Times, but both wanted money far beyond current concepts of money in Elmira. The big jump from the Elmira newspaper business to the Rochester one would require $250,000 in cash. The two partners raised the money through friends and bank loans. Once the newspapers were purchased they were merged into the Rochester Times-Union.

Consequently Gannett moved his headquarters to Rochester to supervise the news end of his newly acquired newspaper. The company’s headquarters would remain in Rochester until 1986, when it was relocated to Arlington County, Virginia. Gannett and Davenport lived in a hotel walking distance from their offices, though they were hardly ever there. Gannett spent a majority of his days tracking down news while Davenport searched for advertisers. It was also in Rochester that Gannett would meet his wife, Caroline Werner. The two met by chance in a downtown store, and though there was a seventeen year difference the two quickly fell in love. In less than two months the two were engaged, and were married in March of 1920. By 1922, Gannett and Davenport were seeing signs of success. The Times-Union had downed its competition, the Post-Express and was beginning to turn a profit. This success, though did not expect the arrival of fellow newspaper business man, William Randolph Hearst.