The Great Merger: How Two Kennewick Newspapers Died to Save the Town
In April 1914, the Courier and the Reporter merged into the Courier-Reporter because a town of 2,000 people couldn't afford two papers. It was a stark lesson in economic consolidation.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
AFTER doing business as competitors in a town of 2000 population for seven years, the Kennewick Courier and Kennewick Reporter each appeared for the last time last week, and this week appear as the Courier-Reporter, the two having merged into one. The newspaper owners had found by experience that a town of 2000 could not support two newspapers on a profitable basis, and the business interests of the town were anxious to get away from the drain of supporting two papers. The plants have been merged and the people of Kennewick will in the future have one good weekly newspaper. A. R. Gardner, one of the brightest newspaper men in the Columbia River valley, who was owner of the Reporter, will have editorial charge of the paper.
THE Courier and Reporter of Kennewick have consolidated, and henceforth will be known as the Courier-Reporter. The consolidation will undoubtedly be of great advantage to all concerned, as one good-sized, healthy, robust paper in a town the size of Kennewick is better than two papers making a living but bearing to the owners.
THE two newspapers of Kennewick have consolidated and this week will see the first issue of the consolidated paper. This move we understand has been under consideration for some time and can result in nothing but good for both town and the men who run the paper. Gardner, Reed and Tripp are a good combination, and here's wishing them luck.
THE proprietors of the Courier and Reporter of Kennewick, which have been eking out a mere existence in that city for many years, have joined interests and but one paper will be issued in Kennewick in the future. The consolidation should be beneficial to all proprietors as well as to the town. A better paper should result.
THE two Kennewick papers, the Reporter and the Courier, announced last week that from the First of April they would appear as one paper consolidated with the ownership resting solely in the names of Reed, Tripp and Gardner, with Gardner as Editor. Let us hope that there will not be some disgruntled faction among the new paper to make it a starvation job for all once more and increase the cost of living that much.
KENNEWICK'S two papers, the Reporter and the Courier, have been consolidated under the name of the Courier-Reporter. There is not enough business in that town for two papers; so the publishers did the only sensible thing. Gardner will be editor; Reed, outside manager; Tripp, inside manager.
This 1914 consolidation mirrors the modern media landscape where local newsrooms have shrunk or vanished entirely due to economic pressures. Just as Kennewick could not sustain two competing papers in a town of 2,000, many small towns today struggle to keep local journalism alive against digital giants and advertising consolidation.
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