[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 12 (Wednesday, January 21, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     REMARKS HONORING THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HERALD-DISPATCH

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                         HON. NICK J. RAHALL II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 21, 2009

  Mr. RAHALL. Madam Speaker, Thomas Jefferson famously observed that 
were it left up to him ``to decide whether we should have a government 
without newspapers or newspapers without a government,'' he would ``not 
hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.''
  Fortunately, Americans have never been forced to make that choice. 
Jefferson and his fellow Founding Fathers bequeathed us a democratic 
government that has made us the envy of the world. And, at the same 
time, the Nation's free press has shown itself fully worthy of the 
confidence Jefferson voiced in it.
  This year, a great newspaper in my native West Virginia, The Herald-
Dispatch, marks a major milestone in its long and distinguished 
history--its 100th anniversary--and I am proud to offer this salute to 
it.
  The Herald-Dispatch published its first issue in Huntington on 
January 17, 1909.
  The newspaper's roots actually stretch back to 1871, the very year of 
Huntington's birth, when printer O.G. Chase arrived by riverboat and 
soon was publishing the young city's first newspaper. Known as The 
Independent, Chase's publication merged in 1875 with the Cabell Press 
to form a new publication called the Weekly Advertiser. When it later 
became a daily paper, the name was shortened to The Advertiser.
  A rival daily, The Huntington Herald, was launched in 1890. Three 
years later, in 1893, printer Joseph Harvey Long, arrived in Huntington 
determined to purchase The Huntington Herald, which he did--paying $100 
down and pledging to pay a balance of $1,700. Long published The Herald 
for only 18 months before selling it and purchasing The Advertiser.
  Floyd S. Chapman, a future several-term mayor of Huntington, was 
first the city editor of The Advertiser, then editor of The Herald. In 
1904, he left to begin his own newspaper, The Huntington Dispatch. In 
1909, The Herald and The Dispatch merged to become The Herald-Dispatch.
  Flash forward two decades and another historic merger occurred in 
1927 when The Advertiser and The Herald-Dispatch merged to form the 
Huntington Publishing Co., with J.H. Long as president. Known to one 
and all by his honorary title of ``Colonel,'' Long would go on to 
become the undisputed dean of West Virginia newspapermen.
  The staff of The Herald-Dispatch moved into The Advertiser's handsome 
new building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Tenth Street, but the 
two staffs remained separate and highly competitive. The building's 
presses published The Advertiser each afternoon, The Herald-Dispatch 
each morning and a combined edition, The Herald-Advertiser, on Sundays.
  Over the years, Colonel Long not only made The Advertiser and The 
Herald-Dispatch the region's leading newspapers, he and his sons also 
branched out into broadcasting. In 1923, the company purchased WSAZ 
Radio and in 1949 founded WSAZ-TV, one of the Nation's first television 
stations.
  Colonel Long died in 1958 at age 95.
  In 1971, the Gannett Co., one of the Nation's largest newspaper 
chains, purchased the Huntington Publishing Co. newspapers.
  Under Gannett, the newsroom's typewriters gave way to computer 
terminals, and the noisy Linotype machines that once spit out lines of 
hot metal type were consigned to the junkyard.
  In 1979, The Advertiser became one of many afternoon newspapers to 
cease publication, a victim of changing tastes on the part of readers 
who now prefer morning newspapers. At the same time, the Sunday Herald-
Advertiser nameplate was retired and The Herald-Dispatch became a 
seven-day-a-week publication. Many long-time staffers on The Advertiser 
moved over to The Herald-Dispatch.
  Gannett published The Herald-Dispatch for 36 years, until May of 2007 
when the company sold it to another national chain, Gatehouse Media. A 
month later, Gatehouse in turn sold the newspaper to a Huntington 
company, Champion Printing, thus returning it to local ownership.
  And indeed, the heart and spirit of America's free press, from the 
beginning, have been individuals dedicated to keeping the public 
informed, communities educated, and discourse alive and well. 
Throughout its century of living, the Herald Dispatch's corps of 
employees has kept the interest and needs of its neighbors foremost in 
their writing, coverage and opining.
  On this, its 100th anniversary, I extend my hearty congratulations to 
The Herald-Dispatch. May it continue to inform and entertain its 
thousands of readers for many, many years to come.

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