- James McClatchy
James McClatchy (1824–1883) was an American newspaper editor.
Although he is thought of as founder of "
The Sacramento Bee ", which grew intoThe McClatchy Company , James McClatchy was actually the newspaper's second editor, taking over just days after the newspaper began publication as "The Daily Bee" in February 1857.Biography
Born in 1824, McClatchy was a young journalist on the editorial staff of
Horace Greeley ’s New York Tribune in 1848, when news of a gold strike on Northern California'sAmerican River reached the East. Taking the advice of his employer, who famously declared "Go west, young man," McClatchy went west.After an arduous journey that included a shipwreck in Baja California, McClatchy reached the gold fields of the Sierra Nevada. His short-lived endeavor at mining, however, brought him no wealth.
Returning to journalism, he took a position in the summer of 1849 with the "Placer Times", which was published at
Sutter's Fort , the settlement that gave rise to the river port town ofSacramento, California . As an editorialist, McClatchy developed a reputation as a people's champion after he took a stand against land speculators who were trying to drive settlers off of their farms.By fall of the next year, McClatchy was editing his own "Settlers and Miners Tribune", which survived only a few weeks. He moved on to work for the "Sacramento Transcript", the "Democratic State Journal" and the "Sacramento Times" before joining founder
Rollin Ridge at the fledgling "Sacramento Bee". Less than a week after the new paper appeared, McClatchy had become its editor. That same week, "The Bee" reported a scandal that led to the impeachment of California State Treasurer Henry Bates.Known as a supporter of the people's interests against those of corporations and corrupt politians, McClatchy made "The Bee" a bastion of progressive reformism. Upon his death in 1883, the paper's leadership passed to James's son,
C.K. McClatchy .External links
* [http://www.cnpa.com/CalPress/hall/jmcc.htm The California Newspaper Hall of Fame]
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