- The Advocate (Stamford)
Infobox_Newspaper
name = The Advocate
type =Daily newspaper
format =Broadsheet
caption = "The Advocate" newspaper "honor box" inNew Canaan, Connecticut
owners =Hearst Corporation
publisher = John M. Dunster
editor = David Warner
foundation = 1829, as "The Stamford Intelligencer"
headquarters = 9A Riverbend Drive South, Stamford,Connecticut USA
website = [http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/ stamfordadvocate.com]
circulation = 23,441 daily, 25,626 Sunday in 2007Audit Bureau of Circulations [http://www.accessabc.com/products/freereports.htm e-Circ data] for the six months endingSeptember 30 ,2007 , accessedDecember 4 ,2007 .]"The Advocate" is a seven-day
daily newspaper based in Stamford,Connecticut ,USA . The paper shares a publisher and editor with the "Greenwich Time"; both are owned and operated by theHearst Corporation , a multinational corporatemedia conglomerate with $4 billion in revenues."The Advocate" circulates in Stamford and the nearby southwestern Connecticut towns of Darien and New Canaan. Since 2003, it has also published a separate edition that serves Norwalk. The paper's headquarters moved in 2008 from downtown Stamford, across the street from the Stamford Government Center, to the Riverbend complex in the Springdale section of Stamford. It also has a news bureau in Norwalk.
Coverage
In addition to the regular focus on local news, sports and business, "The Advocate" pays special attention to the workings of
Metro-North Railroad through the "Railroad Ties" column, since many in southwestern Connecticut commute by train."The Advocate"'
Website was launched in 1999. [ [http://blogs.stamfordadvocate.com/marketfacts/online/online.html The Advocate And Greenwich Time: Market Facts ] ] In early 2007, the site started featuring message boards.History
"The Advocate" has been called Stamford's oldest continuing business.Russell, Don. "The Advocate Has Historic Roots Here: Newspaper Is City's Oldest Employer". Opinion column. "The Advocate" (Stamford, Conn.), page A16,
April 11 ,2007 .]"The Intelligencer"
The paper's earliest origins come from "The Intelligencer", a newspaper originally run out of a small office on the south side of West Park (now Columbus Park in downtown Stamford) in April 1829. William Henry "Hen" Holly installed a printing press there, but despite some support from the community, he closed the publication after a few months for lack of revenue."Our Back Pages". Sidebar. "The Advocate" (Stamford, Conn.),
March 7 ,2007 .]Several town leaders then helped to finance the publication again, this time under the name "The Sentinel", which first appeared on
February 16 ,1830 . Stamford was never without a local newspaper of one kind or another since then. The oldest known copy of "The Sentinel", datedJune 22 ,1830 , is in Stamford's public library, the Ferguson Library. That issue, marked Volume 1, No. 19, consists of four sheets, 15 by 20 inches each, with six columns to a page. The motto of the newspaper, printed at the top of the front page, was: "Pledged to no party's arbitrary way, we follow Truth wher'er she leads the way."The newspaper published very little local news, according to Don Russell, an "Advocate" columnist who wrote about the early history of the paper. " [T] he columns were filled with sermons, poems and what were called literary 'gems' from various sources, and some domestic and foreign news items taken from newspapers in big cities."
An early columnist in the newspaper wrote under the pseudonym "Aristides the Younger" and at one point denounced the Rev. Joel Mann of Greenwich for anti-Masonic tendencies. Some think the columnist was Holly.
Holly promoted reading in Stamford in various ways, operating his own circulating library out of his office, with books available to borrowers he deemed responsible. He was also one of the major founders of Stamford's public library, the Ferguson.
Family ownership
In May 1848, Edgar Hoyt and Andrew Smith came into ownership of the newspaper. The partners renamed it "The Stamford Advocate". Advertising was banished from the front page.
In 1861 printer William Gillespie and his brother, Edward, joined the newspaper staff. Edward would later cover the Civil War from the front lines. Eventually the Gillespie brothers, sons of a Canadian immigrant to Stamford, bought the newspaper and became the first of three generations of Gillespie owners of the publication.
In 1892 they made the newspaper a daily. Around the turn of the century the name changed to "The Daily Advocate". The name was later changed to "The Stamford Advocate".
Atlantic Street offices
In 1894, the Advocate moved into a new building at 258 Atlantic Street (across the street from St. John Roman Catholic Church). The facade is in Neo-Italian Renaissance style, and its relatively narrow front widens out considerably in the back, where the newspaper's printing press was located. In 1928 the building was remodeled, and the newspaper remained in that location until 1980. (The building was then occupied by various architectural and design firms and an Internet company. In 2002 it became the home of the Print Research Foundation.) [Daley, Sherri. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980DE5DE1339F934A25750C0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print "ART; 6,000 American Prints Take Over Stamford's Advocate Building"] . "
The New York Times ",March 17 ,2002 . AccessedNovember 12 ,2007 .]In the late 1940s, the 1947 film Boomerang, directed by
Elia Kazan was shot almost entirely in Stamford, and partly at the newspaper's offices, then on Atlantic Street. Some members of the editorial staff were shown in the movie. [Russell, Don. "'Roles' in Movies Are Nothing New for City: Kazan used Stamford in the '40s". Opinion column. "The Advocate ", Stamford (Conn.) edition, page A10,April 25 ,2007 .]Times-Mirror and Tribune
In 1977, the Gillespie family sold the paper to
Times Mirror Company , owner of "The Los Angeles Times ".In 1978,
Anthony Dolan , a staff writer at the time, won aPulitzer Prize for reporting on city corruption. While in college, he had written for the "Yale Daily News ", and interviewed Stamford resident and Yale alumnusWilliam F. Buckley Jr. for that student newspaper. The two became friends, and when Dolan lost his job with Gannett, Buckley helped get him hired by "The Advocate". By 1979, Dolan had become tired of journalism and in 1980 went to work forRonald Reagan 's campaign for president. Dolan went on to become a speechwriter in Reagan's White House. [Judis, John B., "William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives", New York: Simon & Shuster, 1988, pp 289, 417]In 1980, the newspaper moved to its current address at the corner of Tresser Boulevard and Washington Avenue in downtown Stamford.
In June 2000,
Tribune Company bought Times Mirror, incorporating "The Advocate" into the Chicago-based company's holdings.In May 2003 "The Advocate" opened an office at 605 West Ave. in Norwalk. The newspaper already had started a Norwalk edition.
Sale to Hearst
In March 2007, Tribune Co. had announced it would sell the two papers to
Gannett forUS$ 73 million, but the deal fell through when Gannett refused to honor 35 "Advocate" newsroom workers' union contract with Local 2110 ofUnited Auto Workers ."Hearst Corp. Buys 2 Conn. Dailies, to be Run by MediaNews". "NEPA Bulletin", page 7, November-December 2007.]"The Advocate" and its sister paper, the "Greenwich Time", were sold to Hearst for
US$ 62.4 million byTribune Company in a deal that closedNovember 1 ,2007 . The sale did not include Tribune-owned land in Stamford and Greenwich, including the papers' printing presses. At the end of 2007, printing plant employees were permanently laid off and the newspaper was printed at the Danbury "News-Times" plant, owned by MediaNews Group. The "Greenwich Time " was then printed at the "Connecticut Post " plant in Bridgeport.On
January 6 ,2008 , the newspaper announced in a front-page article that its Stamford offices were moving from 75 Tresser Boulevard, where the newspaper had been located since 1981, to the Riverbend office complex off Hope Street in the city's Springdale section, with the move expected by the end of the month. The Norwalk office was moving from leased office space at 605 West Avenue, where it had been since the Norwalk edition began, to 542 Westport Avenue, effective immediately. [Ginocchio, Mark, "Offices of The Advocate, Greenwich Time to move", article, "The Advocate",January 6 ,2007 , page 1]On
August 8 ,2008 the Hearst Corporation acquired theConnecticut Post (Bridgeport, Conn.) and www.ConnPost.com, including seven non-daily newspapers, from MediaNews Group, Inc. and assumed management control of three additional daily newspapers inFairfield County , Conn., includingThe Advocate (Stamford) ,Greenwich Time (Greenwich), andThe News-Times (Danbury), which had been managed for Hearst by MediaNews had managed under a management agreement that began in April 2007. [http://www.hearst.com/news/press_080808.html ]The name
Founded in 1829 as "The Stamford Intelligencer", the newspaper was renamed several times in the 1830s and 1840s before becoming "The Stamford Advocate" in 1843. [ [http://blogs.stamfordadvocate.com/marketfacts/print/print.html The Advocate And Greenwich Time: Market Facts ] ]
"The Advocate" has been known by various names:Roth, David M., editor, and Grenier, Judith Arnold, associate editor, "Connecticut History and Culture: An Historical Overview and Resource Guide for Teachers". Connecticut Historical Commission, 1985. Pages 426-427.]
*"Stamford Intelligencer"
April 8 ,1829 , when the newspaper had a brief run as a weekly, to February __, 1830
*"Stamford Sentinel"February 15 ,1830 , when the newspaper was restarted, toAugust 17 ,1835 and again fromOctober 5 ,1835 toMarch 13 ,1837
*"Democratic Sentinel" —March 19 ,1838 to July __, 1840
*"Farmer's Advocate"
*"The Farmer and Mechanic's Advocate," (the comma was part of the title) —June 15 ,1842 to some date in 1843
*"Daily Advocate" starting at some date in 1843 and untilMarch 30 ,1922
* "The Advocate" in 1974.Locations of historical archives
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