The Columbus Citizen-Journal

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The Columbus Citizen-Journal was a Scripps Howard publication in Columbus, Ohio. It was formed in 1959 by the merger of The Columbus Citizen and The Ohio State Journal. It shared printing facilities, as well as business, advertising, and circulation staff with The Columbus Dispatch. The last paper printed was on December 31, 1985.

[edit] Early history

In 1809, the first printing press in Ohio was set up in Worthington by two New England natives. Two years later, the Worthington Intelligencer was established. Operations were moved to nearby Columbus in 1814 after it became the state's new capital. The newspaper was eventually renamed rhe Ohio State Journal, and it became the official mouthpiece of the Republican Party in the late 1850s, guided by its editor and proprietor, James M. Comly. Following Comly's military service during the American Civil War, he returned to Columbus and rapidly established the Journal as one of the leading newspapers in Ohio. Through his editorials, Comly was instrumental in helping Rutherford B. Hayes be elected Governor of Ohio and later, President of the United States. Comly left the paper in 1872 when he was named to a diplomatic post in Hawaii, but his guidance had firmly established its importance in Ohio politics and news reporting. Shortly after the start of the 20th Century, the paper was purchased by the Wolfe family. In 1950, they merged the Ohio State Journal with the Dispatch Printing Company.

The rival Columbus Citizen had been founded in 1899 as an independent newspaper not affiliated with a political party. In 1959, it was merged with the Ohio State Journal to form the Columbus Citizen-Journal.

[edit] Controversy regarding end of circulation

The neutrality of this section is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.

The Columbus Citizen-Journal was forced to stop printing after a long court battle with the owners of The Columbus Dispatch, who decided to sever ties with "The Journal" (specifically the shared printing facilities used by both publications). In brief, "The Dispatch" owned the printing presses on which The Journal was printed -- at the time, the only presses available for printing of a daily broadsheet in central Ohio. Without access to the presses, The Journal was forced out of the local newspaper publication market in the Columbus metro area. In an ensuing court case, The Journal maintained that the ownership of The Dispatch decided to eliminate its only major competition in central Ohio in order to create an illegal media monopoly. If true, The Dispatch's owners may have been attempting to form an illegal media monopoly in violation of federal law.

The Dispatch was part of a company that also owned WBNS, the long respected CBS affiliate and major television outlet in central Ohio.

The US Department of Justice took up the case on the side of The Journal, but eventually dropped its support of the case. Some commentators suggested that the Justice department's decision to drop the case was connected with The Dispatch having been founded, owned, and operated by the Wolfe family, an influential Ohio family known to be personal friends of the then Vice President of the United States (George H. W. Bush). {{unsourced}}