Shreveport Journal

The Shreveport Journal was a Monday-through-Saturday newspaper published between January 7, 1895, and March 30, 1991, in Shreveport, the largest city in north Louisiana. Throughout its existence, The Journal was in competition with the still published Shreveport Times. During its existence at 222 Lake Street, The Journal shared the physical plant and printing press with The Times though the two newsrooms were separate and independent.

Background[edit]

The Journal began as The Judge under the ownership of J. E. Goodwin. The name "The Journal" was not adopted until February 17, 1897. Ownership changed frequently in the early years. William E. Hamilton purchased the paper about 1900 and operated it until 1911, at which time it was acquired by the Journal Publishing Company, with Andrew Jackson "A. J." Frantz, Jr. (1877-1947), a native of Rankin County, Mississippi, and a veteran of the Spanish-American War,^[1] as the president of the company and Douglas Attaway, as secretary. In 1918, Attaway acquired controlling interest and in 1925 became the president and publisher. Upon Attaway's death in 1957, his son, Douglas Fisher Attaway, became president and publisher. Dolph Frantz, a nephew of A. J. Frantz, Jr., was the long term city editor of The Journal.^[2] A journalism graduate of the University of Missouri, Attaway from 1966 until 1979 was the chairman of the board of KSLA-TV, the CBS affiliate and the first television outlet in Shreveport, having begun in 1954. Attaway sold KSLA to Viacom. He was also a former chairman of the board of Newspaper Production Company and the Attaway Newspaper Group, Inc.^[3]

In 1974, two years before he sold The Journal to the Shreveport industrialist and philanthropist Charles T. Beaird, Attaway recruited Stanley Tiner from The Times to become the editor of The Journal. In time, Tiner, who was born in Webster Parish, reared in Shreveport, and a graduate of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, and Beaird, who served a term as a Republican on the former Caddo Parish Police Jury, moved the editorial position of The Journal far to the political left, whereas it had been clearly conservative and earlier segregationist under Attaway and a previous editor, George W. Shannon.^[4]

In 1972, Attaway wrote an article on a total eclipse, the phenomenon in which the moon totally blocks out the rays of the sun, which occurred on July 10 of that year. Attaway and his long-term photo editor, Jack Barham, who continued in that position under Beaird, traveled to New York City to observe the two-minute eclipse, having found their desirable spot of view under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which links Brooklyn with Staten Island.^[5]

In its later years, The Journal carried the column "The Presence of the Past" by the young historian Eric Brock.^[6]

The Times and the Shreveport Journal shared a building at 222 Lake Street, although they were separately owned and editorially independent.

Closure in 1991[edit]

Beaird announced the closure of The Journal on January 29, 1991, to give employees two months notice before the effective date of termination on March 30. He explained that the publication had lost circulation and advertising revenues during the preceding decade from a high of nearly 40,000 to barely 16,000. Beaird did not comment on the possibility that his liberal editorial views, new to the older readers, had been a factor in the decline in circulation. "There just comes a time when it becomes uneconomical to go on. It was a very tough, sad decision," he said."Shreveport Journal ends publication after 96 years",^[7]

Though The Journal had closed as a daily paper in 1991, Beaird contracted an agreement with The Times to carry on the op-ed page the so-called "Journal Page", adorned with Beaird's favorite flower, the rose, allowing continuing editorial comment approved by Beaird and managed by editor Jim Montgomery. This "Journal Page" continued until December 31, 1999.The Journal won several important prizes under Beaird, including the "Robert F. Kennedy Award for Coverage of the Disadvantaged" by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the "Mass Media Gold Medallion" for stories on African American history, and the Scripps-Howard National Journalism Awards for Editorial Writing."Journal Page" was a 1994 finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing for a series on decriminalization of narcotics.^[8]

Notable staffers[edit]

In addition to the aforementioned George Shannon, Douglas Attaway, Douglas Fisher Attaway, Jr., Dolph Frantz, Stanley Tiner, Eric Brock, and Jack Barham, others on The Journal staff were:

• Jerry Byrd (1935-2016), sports editor, later with Bossier Press-Tribune in Bossier City^[9]
• Lane Crockett, staff member from 1968 to 1977, later with Shreveport Times, entertainment editor syndicated for a decade by Gannett
• Marshall Douglas, religion editor in 1970s
• Dolph Frantz, a nephew of Journal founding president Andrew Jackson Frantz, Jr.; managing editor, 1919-1942; editor, 1946-1953^[10]
• John Craig Flournoy (born 1951), reporter in the 1970s; later investigative reporter for The Dallas Morning News and current journalism professor at Southern Methodist University near Dallas.^[11][12]
• James H. Greene (1918-1988), staff writer prior to 1950, candidate for United States House of Representatives in 1950.^[13]
• Robert Madison "Bob" Griffin, travel author in the 1960s and 1970s while sports editor at KSLA-TV; later with KTBS-TV.
• Chet Hilburn (born 1945), reporter, author of The Mystique of Tiger Stadium: 25 Greatest Games: The Ascension of LSU Football (2012)^[14]
• Bill Keith, former city editor, later Shreveport Times investigative reporter, and member of the Louisiana State Senate^[15]
• Perry Roy Keith (1924-1998), former city editor, previously worked for Shreveport Times^[16]
• William Howard "Bill" Lee (1925-2014), state editor during 1960s and 1970s in charge of regional reporting and management of the correspondents, native of Kosciusko, Mississippi, United States Navy veteran of World War II, journalism graduate of the University of Mississippi, reporter and editor for a number of weekly and daily papers in West and Central Texas prior to his 16-year association with The Journal; with his wife, a charter member of the South Bossier Baptist Church in Bossier City^[17]
• Carl P. Liberto (1949-2018), last editor-in-chief of The Journal; founded Shreveport consulting firm CPL (named for his initials) after the paper folded and was an analyst on local cable television programs.^[18][19]
• Bob Mann, reporter in early 1980s; currently holds the Douglas Manship Chair of Journalism at LSU in Baton Rouge; inductee of the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame] at Winnfield.^[20]
• Lois Norder, last Journal city editor (1988-1991), later managing editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram^[21]
• John James Marshall, sports writer (1981-1991)^[22]
• Ed Pettis, former state editor
• Veronica "Ronni" Patriquin Clark, The Journal staff (1976-1991), director of the Capitol Bureau in Baton Rouge, later with Mobile Press-Register^[23]
• Rupert Peyton, city editor of The Journal from 1925 to 1940; former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives; strongly anti-Long politician.^[24]
• Charles C. Phillips, columnist^[25]
• John Andrew Prime, staff writer at The Journal prior to 1978, since with the Shreveport Times^[26]
• Gloria Sanderson Sartor (1923-2020) was during World War II the first woman reporter at The Journal, at which she covered City Hall and the U.S. District Court. She was subsequently a Shreveport community figure nd among her many affiliations was the president of the Junior League.^[27]
• Bailey Thomson, staff writer, later with Mobile Press-Register and associate professor of journalism at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa^[28]
• Nico A. Van Thyn, The Journal sports writer, later with Shreveport Times and Fort Worth Star-Telegram^[29]
• Rick Woodson (c. 1940-2013), sports editor in 1960s and 1970s^[30]

References[edit]