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When William Parks cranked out the first edition of the Maryland Gazette — the company's original newspaper — on his hand press, little did he realize what a part of history he and his paper would become. Surely he could not envision his enterprise evolving into a publishing company that today produces six newspapers and a metropolitan magazine.
Founded by British journalist Parks in 1727 as an adjunct to his business as Maryland's public printer, the Maryland Gazette survived the dreaded stamp tax that helped to start the American Revolution, and overcame continued royal attacks on freedom of the press. The newspaper made it through eight years with a female editor-publisher in Colonial days when a woman's place was anywhere but a print shop.
Thanks to the personal intervention of Abraham Lincoln, the Gazette endured its own support of the Union in Civil War days despite local southern sympathy so strong that Lincoln received only one vote in Annapolis in the 1860 election.
Through more than 260 years this newspaper business overcame economic disasters (at one point the publisher's wife sold chocolates to keep the business going), physical disasters (a fire once destroyed the presses on which it was printed), and editorial controversies too numerous to detail in an existence of more than a quarter-millennium.
The company's first publisher, William Parks, made a major journalistic contribution when his newspaper began to print reports from correspondents in London, Paris, Moscow, Vienna, Stockholm and other capitals in Europe.
These reports were brought from Europe by ship to the then-bustling seaport of Annapolis. Benjamin Franklin and other Colonial editors copied Gazette items weeks later in their newspapers.
The idea eventually evolved into the worldwide press services that today provide a majority of our national and international news.
Mr. Parks, an innovative journalist, also wrote a report on local events, thus becoming the country's first newspaper columnist.
Most history buffs know that it was the famous 1735 trial of a New York newspaper editor named John Peter Zenger that established the principle in American law that printing the truth is not libel or sedition. This, in turn, laid the basis for the First Amendment to the Constitution and the concept of freedom of the press in this country.
But where was Mr. Zenger before he went to New York and got into all that trouble with the British? You guessed it. He learned his trade in Annapolis as an indentured servant and apprentice printer for the Gazette.
We may have lost Mr. Zenger to New York, but we gained an important early publisher from Philadelphia. Jonas Green, this newspaper's second publisher, learned the trade of printing and his commitment to the ideals of journalism from the master himself, Benjamin Franklin.
The Gazette's early masthead read: "Annapolis, Printed by Jonas Green at his Printing Office on Charles Street; where all persons may be supplied with this Gazette at twelve shillings, six pence a year, and Advertisements of moderate length are inserted for 5 shillings the First Week and 1 shilling each time thereafter; and long ones in proportion."
Money, however, was sometimes hard to come by, and Mr. Green was not above trading an ad or a subscription for supplies. His wife, Anne Catharine Green, also helped to make ends meet by selling homemade chocolates at the post office.
Jonas Green was a born troublemaker who hated the Stamp Act, which among other things directly taxed his newspaper. Refusing to pay, he published the Gazette with what was then a blaring headline: "The Maryland Gazette Expiring: In Uncertain Hopes of a Resurrection to Life Again." Mr. Green went on to explain that because of the Stamp Act, the newspaper "will not any longer be published." In the bottom right-hand corner of the page, where the tax stamp should have been placed, there appeared instead a skull and crossbones.
Fortunately, calmer heads prevailed. They convinced Mr. Green of the value of a courageous press in a struggle against tyranny, and he later resumed publication under this banner headline: "An Apparition of the late Maryland Gazette, which is not dead, but only sleepeth."
Defenders of this newspaper's claim as being the oldest in the nation say this brief interruption of publication was not a business decision as much as a deliberate political statement by a determined and courageous publisher.
Another first
Capital Gazette Newspapers take pride in the fact that they can lay claim to having the first woman to be both editor and publisher of a newspaper in the American Colonies.
When Jonas Green died in 1767, his wife, Anne Catharine Green, took over immediately, continuing her husband's policy of operating an independent newspaper under the nose of the royal governor in Annapolis. Mrs. Green, a real fighter and a strong supporter of Colonial rights, published the newspaper for eight years -- and raised a family of 14 children. The newspaper stayed in the Green family for 94 years.
Annapolitans enjoy telling the story of our own counterpart to the Boston Tea Party — the burning of the brig Peggy Stewart — in which local patriots forced Annapolis merchant Anthony Stewart to set fire to his vessel, complete with its cargo of tea from England, in Annapolis Harbor.
The history books tend to play up the Boston Tea Party and ignore ours, even though Annapolitans put themselves and their families publicly on the firing lines. Those who dumped the tea in Boston Harbor concealed their identities from the press and the public at large beneath the costumes and war paint of American Indians. Here, on the other hand, the Gazette not only published full accounts of the event but also printed the names of the patriots involved, with their full knowledge and approval.
Maryland patriots were determined to stand up publicly for their rights, and the Gazette helped them create the political atmosphere in which independence became possible.
Wasn't on the front
Many years ago, the editors of Parade magazine came to us with an appealing idea. For their July 4th cover they wanted to run a picture of the Maryland Gazette with its front-page coverage of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.
With much anticipation, we set off to the archives to photograph this historic issue. But, alas and alack, what we found was that the Declaration was not page-one news in the Gazette. Then, as now with all our newspapers, the front page was devoted to news of the greatest interest to local readers. Nonetheless, the Gazette was one of the first newspapers to publish the Declaration, albeit on page 2.
During the Civil War period the sympathies of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County were well established for the South. Nonetheless, the Gazette's publisher, Thomas Wilson, sharply and repeatedly lashed out against what he called the "madness" of dissolving the Union. In the elections of 1860 and 1864, this position nearly destroyed the newspaper.
In 1860, for example, Lincoln received exactly three votes in Anne Arundel County, and only a single one from Annapolis, presumably Wilson's. The paper's stand in support of the Union cost Wilson advertising, as well as legal and printing contracts. It is said the newspaper survived only because Lincoln was a smart politician. In appreciation of Wilson's support, he appointed the publisher as the federal paymaster for the state of Maryland, in effect providing a helpful subsidy.
The old Maryland Gazettes are like the pages of a giant American history book. These papers, and early editions of The Capital, are continually searched for details of the past by researchers, historians and readers.
Alex Haley, author of the best-selling epic "Roots," traced his family history all the way back to Africa in the early 1700s. Mr. Haley would have been left at a dead end in his research, however, had he not come across a Sept. 19, 1767, Gazette advertisement announcing the arrival in Annapolis of a ship called the Lord Ligonier that included a "cargo" of slaves. With that crucial lead, he found that this ship carried his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, from Africa to America.
Such research also resulted in fireworks — literally — for President Harry S Truman. Mr. Truman's inauguration committee hesitated to put on a fireworks display for fear of setting a precedent. But a 1789 Gazette revealed to committee researchers that the precedent had already been set, for such a display accompanied George Washington's inauguration. So Mr. Truman got his fireworks, too.
On May 12, 1884, the first edition of Annapolis' daily newspaper — The Evening Capital — came off the presses owned by the Maryland Gazette. Thus was born a relationship that continues to this day: publications that preserve a link to the past and serve the modern needs and interests of thousands of readers.
The Evening Capital was founded by William Abbott, a visionary who felt that the state capital needed a daily newspaper even though the population of Annapolis at the time was only 7,200 and Anne Arundel County's population was only 32,000 — less than 8 percent of what it is today.
Shortly before World War I, Abbott bought the Maryland Gazette and joined it with The Evening Capital under one publishing company.
Until 1955, the Gazette was a weekly covering all of Anne Arundel County, with The Evening Capital serving as Annapolis' daily newspaper. Since 1955, the Maryland Gazette has covered northern Anne Arundel County, becoming a twice-weekly publication in 1969.
The Evening Capital became The Capital in 1981 because the newspaper publishes in the morning on weekends. It covers central and southern Anne Arundel County, including the Annapolis area and Kent Island.
House still stands
Jonas Green's house, where the Gazette was published for many years, still stands on Charles Street in downtown Annapolis, marked by a small historical plaque.
The Capital, the Maryland Gazette and their sister publications have been composed and printed in numerous locations, all in the Annapolis area, for more than 270 years.
The company had no fewer than seven different locations before it moved from 3 Church Circle to 213 West St. in 1948, and then to 2000 Capital Drive in 1987.
The computerized high-speed Goss Headliner presses used by this company today are a far cry from the small printing room and hand press used in Jonas Green's home.
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By G. Nick Lundskow
Phillip Merrill held controlling interest in Capital Gazette Newspapers from 1968 until his death in 2006. |
Philip Merrill bought Capital Gazette Newspapers in 1968 and, in a front-page statement of policy, pledged to conduct the company on sound business principles and "the highest standards of journalism."
Capital Gazette Newspapers, the direct descendant of the original Maryland Gazette, today is part of an enterprise that publishes six newspapers and one magazine with a total circulation of around 300,000:
- The Capital, a daily and Sunday newspaper serving the Annapolis area, with a circulation of almost 50,000.
- The Maryland Gazette, published twice weekly, serving northern and central Anne Arundel County, with a circulation of 34,000.
- The Bowie Blade-News, published weekly, serving residents of Bowie, Glenn Dale and Mitchellville with a circulation of 25,000.
- The Crofton News-Crier, published weekly, serving residents of Crofton, with a circulation of 10,000.
- The West County News, published weekly, serving residents of Gambrills, Odenton, Piney Orchard, Four Seasons, Seven Oaks, Russett Center and Maryland City, with a circulation of 15,000.
- The South County Gazette, published weekly, serving residents of lower south county including Deale, Shady Side, Lothian, Galesville, Harwood and Wayson's Corner, with a circulation of 10,000.
- Washingtonian magazine, published monthly, serving residents of the Washington metropolitan area, with a circulation of 157,000.
- The company's Web site is www.HometownAnnapolis.com.
Under Mr. Merrill's guidance, The Capital tripled its circulation to 50,000.
The Maryland Gazette has become one of America's largest weekly newspapers.
The company maintains separate editorial, advertising and circulation offices for the Gazette at 306 Crain Highway S.W. in Glen Burnie and for The Bowie Blade-News at 6000 Laurel-Bowie Road.
The Capital Gazette Newspapers' employee handbook expresses the company philosophy using the words of Joseph Pulitzer: "Every issue of every newspaper represents a battle for excellence."
Rapid growth
Jonas Green and William Abbott never could have imagined their businesses growing into the publishing company that exists today, nor could they have conceived of the advances in printing technology that can produce colorful, attractive, thick newspapers at an amazingly rapid speed.
Through the 1970s and into the 1980s, Mr. Merrill kept Capital Gazette Newspapers abreast of the modern revolution in newspaper printing by adding press capacity to the West Street plant. Equipment was brought in for photo-offset composition. The newsroom and classified advertising were computerized.
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Former West St. location of Capital Gazette Communications. |
Despite these and other advances, it soon became apparent that the West Street building was far too small to keep up with the newspapers' growth and the new technology needed to give readers the most attractive newspapers possible in a speedy and efficient way.
The new plant and offices of Capital Gazette Newspapers were formally dedicated on Feb. 9, 1987. The 80,000-square-foot structure sits on 10 acres off Gibralter Avenue, near the intersection of Route 2 and West Street.
Five units of Goss Headliner offset presses provide an 80-page capacity newspaper with full color. There is an ample mail room with automated machinery to handle newspaper inserts, plus plenty of newsprint storage capacity. The company uses about 25 tons of newsprint per day.
Of course, it takes more than equipment to publish newspapers. It takes a dedicated corps of people as well. The company employs around 500 people, plus more than 1,600 newspaper carriers, making it one of the largest employers in the Annapolis area. Our reporters and editors have received numerous state and national awards in providing local news, features, sports and commentary.
Throughout the communities we serve, we are dedicated to providing readers with attractive, interesting and useful newspapers that concentrate on the needs and interests of our local communities.
Like John Peter Zenger and Jonas Green, we do our best to print the truth. As we wrote in one award-winning editorial: "What this newspaper has done, and what it will continue to do, is to meet our responsibilities to the people of this great county by printing the truth whether the politicians, or anyone else, like it or not."
Phillip Merrill died in June 2006 and majority ownership of the paper passed to his wife and partner Eleanor.
In April 2007 it was announced that the Merrills' longtime partner, Landmark Communications Inc., will take full control of Capital Gazette Newspapers while Eleanor Merrill will take full control of Washingtonian Magazine.
Landmark is a family-owned company that owns newspapers, television stations, The Weather Channel, intenet sites and other publishing interests. The company is based in Norfolk, Virginia.
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