Erie Times-News

Infobox Newspaper
name =


caption = The 23 April 2008 front page
of the "Erie Times-News"
type = Daily newspaper
format = Broadsheet
foundation = 1888-04-18
ceased publication =
price = $0.50 daily
owners = The Mead family since 1888
publisher = Rosanne Cheeseman
editor = Rick Sayers
language = English
circulation = 61,000 (Daily)PDFlink|http://www.cityxpress.com/erie_profile.pdf|113 KiB ]
88,000 (Sunday)
headquarters = 205 West 12^th Street
Erie, Pennsylvania 16534
USA
ISSN =
website = http://goerie.com

The "Erie Times-News" is a daily morning newspaper in Erie, Pennsylvania. It has a daily circulation of about 61,000 and a Sunday circulation of about 88,000. The newspaper focuses primarily on Erie County, but also has readers in Crawford County to the south and even New York and Ohio, the states that border Erie County on the east and west respectively.

The "Erie Times-News" is published by the city's Times Publishing Company, not to be confused with, St. Petersburg, Florida-based Times Publishing Company.

The beginning

The newspaper was founded as the "Erie Daily Times" on April 12, 1888, by nine printers involved in a labor dispute at another newspaper. They each invested $25 to establish the Times Publishing Company, which was initially located in a cellar at the corner of 9th Street and State Street. John J. Mead, Sr., one of the founders, eventually bought out his partners. The Mead family, which owns the Times company to this day, headed the newspaper until August 2003. cite news |last=Martin |first=Jim |title=120 Years of Changing Times |work=Erie Times-News |date=12 April 2008 |pages=1A, 4A |url=http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008804120376]

The newspaper relocated to West 10th Street and Peach Street on April 12, 1924.

One company, two newspapers

The Times Publishing Company bought out the rival "Erie Dispatch Herald" in 1956 and co-located the two newspapers' staffs in 1957 in the Dispatch Herald's building at West 12th Street and French Street. On January 7, 1959, the "Erie Morning News" made its debut. The newspapers' offices were moved to the current address at 205 West 12th Street on June 6, 1970. The company published the "Morning News" and the afternoon "Erie Daily Times" until September 29, 2000 and September 1, 2000, respectively. The company merged the two staffs and operations into the present-day "Erie Times-News", which was first published on October 2, 2000.

The "Times-News" today

Since the merger, the Meads have gradually shifted day-to-day leadership of the newspaper outside the family. In August 2003, company Vice President James E. Dible was promoted to chief executive officer, president and publisher, succeeding the retiring Michael Mead, a grandson of the company founder. At about the same time, Michael Mead's first cousin, Edward M. Mead, stepped down as editor, turning over leadership of the newsroom to Executive Editor Rick Sayers. Both Edward and Michael Mead continue to serve on the company's board of directors, the former as its chairman emeritus.

The "Erie Times-News" was named the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association's 2003 "Newspaper of the Year". PNA awarded second place to the newspaper in 2006. [ [http://www.pa-newspaper.org/web/2005/09/newspaper_of_the_year.aspx PNA Newspaper of the Year Awards] ] On January 16, 2006, the paper announced it was eliminating 24 positions immediately and would eliminate another 11 by February 3, leaving the Erie Times-News with about 250 employees. The paper also killed two of its three "Neighbors" zoned editions, a move that accounted for almost half of the initial 24 job cuts. Dible cited flat revenues and rising costs as the reason for the layoffs.

In September 2006, John Mead Flanagin was named chairman of the board. Flanagin is the first fourth-generation member of the Mead family to hold the position.

On 13 September 2007, the "Erie Times-News" named Roseanne Cheeseman to replace the retiring James Dible as CEO and publisher of the newspaper as of October 1, 2007. [cite news| last=Palattella| first=Ed| work=Erie Times-News| title=Times-News publisher to retire; successor named| url=http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070913/NEWS02/70913026| date=2007-09-13| accessdate=2007-09-13]

References

External links

* [http://www.goerie.com/ GoErie.com] , the online edition of the "Erie Times-News".