The dawn of Cleveland journalism broke on July 31, 1818, with the founding of the city’s first newspaper, the Cleaveland Gazette & Commercial Register. By the turn of the century, the city had six established dailies. Only two survived to remain in most memories today: the Plain Dealer and Cleveland Press.
The Plain Dealer began life as a weekly newspaper launched by Joseph W. Gray in 1842. Edward W. Scripps introduced what would become its main competitor, the Penny Press, in 1878. By 1903, the paper had changed its name to the Cleveland Press and become the city’s leading newspaper — a title it would hold until the Plain Dealer, as part of the Samuel Newhouse chain, surpassed it in circulation in 1968 to become Ohio’s largest daily.
In 1972, with the help of Oliver F. Emerson, Lute Harmon Sr. founded Cleveland Magazine and Great Lakes Publishing.
In 1980, the Scripps-Howard communications chain sold the Cleveland Press to Cleveland businessman Joseph E. Cole. Cole, citing a depressed economy and advertising losses, published its final edition on June 17, 1982.
While Cleveland remains a one-newspaper town in terms of major metropolitan dailies, that coverage is augmented by a number of weeklies.
The Call & Post, a publication serving the African American community that resulted from a 1927 merger of the existing Call & Post weeklies, bills itself as “Ohio’s Black news leader,” with Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland editions.
