New Hampshire Union Leader
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| New Hampshire Union Leader | |
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 The July 27, 2005 front page of the New Hampshire Union Leader |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
| Format | Broadsheet |
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| Owner | Union Leader Corp. |
| Publisher | Joseph W. McQuaid |
| Editor | Charles Perkins III |
| Founded | 1863 |
| Headquarters | 100 William Loeb Drive Manchester, NH 03108-9555 United States |
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| Website: UnionLeader.com | |
The New Hampshire Union Leader is the daily newspaper of Manchester, the largest city in the state of New Hampshire. As of 2003 it has a daily circulation of 61,548; as of 2006, the circulation of its Sunday paper, the New Hampshire Sunday News, was 72,833[1]. It was founded in 1863.
It was called just The Union Leader until April 4, 2005.
The paper is best known for the conservative political opinions of its late publisher, William Loeb, and his wife, Elizabeth Scripps "Nackey" Loeb. Famously, the paper helped defeat Maine Senator Edmund Muskie in his 1972 bid for the presidency by attacking Muskie's wife, Jane, in editorials, leading him to defend her -- supposedly tearful -- in a press conference that some say ruined his image in the state. (See also: Canuck Letter.)
Over the decades, the Loebs gained considerable influence, and helped shape New Hampshire's conservative political landscape. The newspaper's strident tone has lessened considerably since the Loebs died. In 2000, after Nackey's death on January 8, Joseph McQuaid took over publishership.
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[edit] History
Like many newspapers, the Union Leader has a complex history involving mergers and buyouts.
The weekly Union became the Manchester Daily Union. (with a period) on March 31, 1863. The afternoon Union became a morning Daily Union (dropping the "Manchester"). Although the Union began as a Democratic paper, by the early 1910s it had been purchased by Londonderry, NH politician Rosecrans Pillsbury, a Republican.
In October 1912, the competing Manchester Leader was founded by Frank Knox and financed by then-Governor Robert P. Bass, a member of the Progressive (or Bull Moose) Party who was attempting to promote the Progressive cause in New Hampshire. The newspaper was so successful that Knox bought out the Union, and the two newspapers merged under one company, the Union-Leader Corporation, in July 1913. Owing to Pillsbury's stake in the new company, Knox moved his paper politically to the right, and the Manchester Union-Leader became a moderate, generally pro-business, Republican newspaper.
Following Knox's death in 1944, William Loeb purchased the newspaper and moved it further to the right. He often placed editorials on the front page and supported highly conservative candidates for public office. He changed Manchester Union Leader to The Union Leader in the mid-1970s to emphasize the fact that it is the only statewide newspaper in New Hampshire.
The New Hampshire Sunday News was created in 1948 and later, after Loeb's failed attempts to start a Sunday edition of the Union-Leader failed, was purchased by the Union-Leader Corporation. It continues to be published under the banner of the New Hampshire Sunday News.
[edit] Contributors
[edit] References
- Cash Kevin. Who the Hell Is William Loeb? Manchester, NH: Amoskeag Press, 1975.
- Roper, Scott. "Manchester Union-Leader." In Burt Feintuch, and David Watters, editors, Encyclopedia of New England. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.
- Wright, James. The Progressive Yankees: Republican Reformers in New Hampshire, 1906-1916. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1987.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Union Leader/New Hampshire Sunday News
- NewHampshire.com
- Neighborhood News, a subsidiary of the Union Leader.
