Savannah Morning News

Infobox Newspaper
name = Savannah Morning News


caption = The July 27, 2005 front page
of the "Savannah Morning News"
type = Daily newspaper
format = Broadsheet
foundation = 1850
(as the "Daily Morning News")
ceased publication =
price =
owners = Morris Communications
publisher = Mike Traynor
editor =
language =
circulation =
headquarters = 725 Broad Street
Augusta, GA 30901
United States
ISSN =
website = [http://www.savannahnow.com/ SavannahNow.com]

The Savannah Morning News is a daily newspaper in Savannah, Georgia. It is published by Morris Communications, Inc. The motto of the paper is "Light of the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry". The paper serves Savannah, its metropolitan area, and parts of South Carolina.

History

William Tappon Thompson, author of the "Major Jones" series of humorous stories, founded the paper on January 15, 1850 as the "Daily Morning News". At the end of the Civil War in 1865, the paper came under Northern ownership and changed its name to the "Daily News and Herald", though Thompson remained as editor. Thompson left the paper in 1867 to travel in Europe. In 1868, Thompson returned and the paper was renamed again to "The Savannah Daily Morning News" for one edition, then changed to the current name the following day. In 1870, Joel Chandler Harris, who later went on to write the Uncle Remus tales, became an assistant editor. As assistant editor, Harris launched a successful campaign to outlaw dueling, which was still popular in Savannah in the mid-1800s. Where as previous editors had written glossed-over stories of brave men dueling over their honor, Harris wrote about grown men urinating in their pants from fear, missing their shots wildly because of fear and sometimes begging for mercy.

Banker Mills B. Lane Jr. and publisher Alvah H. Chapman bought the "Morning News" and the "Savannah Evening Press" in 1957 and combined some operations as the Savannah News-Press Inc. The papers were again sold in 1960 to William Shivers Morris Jr., owner of the "Augusta Chronicle". In 1969, the staffs of the "Savannah Evening Press" and the "Savannah Morning News" merged and in 1972 a combined Sunday edition called the "Savannah News-Press" was published. As evening newspapers were becoming less profitable due to competition by evening news programs on television, the "Evening Press" was cancelled, running its last issue on October 31, 1996. This left the "Morning News" as the only major daily newspaper of Savannah.

References

*Shippey, Herbert. 2002. "William Tappon Thompson." "New Georgia Encyclopedia." [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-530]
* [http://morriscomm.com/divisions/morris_publishing_group/daily_newspapers/savannah.shtml Morris subsidiary profile of the "Savannah Morning News"]

External links

* [http://www.savannahnow.com SavannahNow, the online edition of the "Morning News"]
* [http://forums.savannahnow.com/cgi-bin/bb/ultimatebb.cgi Savannah Morning News forums]