Pensacola News Journal

Infobox Newspaper
name =


caption = The July 27, 2005 front page
of the "Pensacola News Journal"
type = Daily regional middle-market newspaper
format = Broadsheet
foundation = 1889
owners = Gannett Company
headquarters = 101 East Romana Street
Pensacola, FL 32502
USA
editor = Dick Schneider, Executive Editor
website = [http://pnj.com pnj.com]
ISSN =
oclc = 54453673

The " Pensacola News Journal" is a daily (seven day, mornings) newspaper serving the Pensacola, Florida area. It is Northwest Florida's most widely-read daily.

The "News Journal" is owned by Gannett Co., a national media holding company that owns newspapers such as "USA TODAY" and the "Arizona Republic", among others.

History

The heritage of the "News Journal" can be traced back to 1889, when a group of Pensacola businessmen founded the "Pensacola Daily News". The "Daily News" printed its first issue on 5 March 1889, with an initial circulation of 2,500 copies. Then, in March 1897, a Pensacolian named M. Loftin founded a newsweekly, the "Pensacola Journal". The "Journal" converted to a daily format a year later.

The two dailies competed fiercely, each driving the other to edge of bankruptcy in the struggle to be recognised as Pensacola's top daily newspaper. By 1922, the "Journal" was in dire financial trouble, and was eventually purchased by New York businessman John Holliday Perry, who at about the same time also acquired papers in Jacksonville and Panama City. Two years later, Perry bought the "Daily News" and merged the two newspapers' operations. For the next six decades, the "Pensacola Journal" continued to appear mornings and the "Pensacola News" evenings, with a combined Sunday edition as the "Pensacola News Journal".

John H. Perry developed the "News Journal" into an extremely popular and successful newspaper. By the early 1950s, the "News Journal" had developed into one of the most modern and efficient newspaper operations in the SoutheastFact|date=March 2008. Under the leadership of Perry's son, John Holliday Perry, Jr., who succeeded his father in 1955, the "News Journal" continued to expand. Perry Publications, Inc., eventually owned 28 newspapers throughout Florida.

On July 1, 1969, Perry Publications chairman and president John H. Perry, Jr. announced that the company had sold the two papers to Gannett Co., Inc., then based in Rochester, N.Y., for $15.5 million.

Like many U.S. evening newspapers in the post-war period, the "News" sustained declining circulation and was folded into the "Journal" in 1985.Fact|date=January 2007

The paper gained nationwide notoriety in 1997 and 1998 with a series of investigative reports about the Brownsville Revival at the Brownsville Assembly of God. The paper had initially written glowing reports about the revival, but after former members told the paper that all was not as it appeared, the "News Journal" began a four-month investigation that revealed the revival had been "well planned and orchestrated" from the very start. It also called many of the claims made by the church's leaders into question, and delved heavily into the church's finances. The series won many awards, but was roundly criticized by evangelicals throughout the country as a "hit piece" against the church and the meetings. The church answered the paper's allegations by publishing a two-page spread entitled, "The Facts of The Brownsville Revival."Fact|date=January 2007

As of 2004, the "News Journal" had a daily circulation of 63,351 and a Sunday circulation of 80,954.Fact|date=January 2007

References

External links

* [http://www.pnj.com/ Official site]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/19990224002435/www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/brownsville Brownsville Revival: The Money and the Myths] (archive of series on Brownsville Revival)
* [http://www.rickross.com/reference/brownsville/brownsville9.html Pastors orchestrated first revival] (PNJ article at RickRoss.com)
* [http://www.flpress.com/fpa_members/halloffame/perry_j.html John H. Perry, Jr. bio] from Florida Newspaper Hall of Fame (Fla. Press Assn.)
* [http://www.perryinstitute.org/john_h_perry.htm John H. Perry, Jr. bio] from Perry Institute for Marine Science
* [http://www.legacy.com/PalmBeachPost/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=17802366 John H. Perry, Jr. obit] (d. May 2006)
* [http://www.gannett.com/about/map/ataglance/pensaco.htm Gannett subsidiary profile of the "Pensacola News Journal"]