Roll Call is the flagship publication of CQ Roll Call, which also operates: CQ (formerly Congressional Quarterly), publisher of a subscriber-based service for daily and weekly news about Congress and politics, as well as a weekly magazine. Roll Call's regular columnists are Walter Shapiro, Mary C. Curtis, Patricia Murphy, and Stu Rothenberger.
History
Roll Call was founded in 1955 by Sid Yudain, a press secretary to Congressman Al Morano (R-Conn.).[1][2] The inaugural issue of the newspaper was published on June 16, 1955, with an initial printing of 10,000 copies.[3] Richard Nixon, then Vice President of the United States, wrote a letter to Yudain congratulating him on the new venture. Nixon's letter ran on the front page of the inaugural issue.
In 1986, Yudain sold Roll Call to Arthur Levitt, who was serving as the chairman of the American Stock Exchange at the time of the sale.[3] Yudain continued to work as a columnist at Roll Call after the sale.[3]
The Economist Group acquired Roll Call in 1993.[4]Roll Call merged with CQ in 2009 after the latter company was purchased by The Economist Group.[5]
In July 2018, a deal was announced for CQ Roll Call to be acquired by FiscalNote.[6]
Brand franchises
"Heard on the Hill"
In January 1988, Roll Call launched the "Heard on the Hill" column, which covers the intrigue of life and work in and around Capitol Hill. Alex Gangitano wrote Heard on the Hill from 2014 to 2018 before leaving to cover lobbying for The Hill.[7] On 30 April 2019, Roll Call announced the current Heard on the Hill writing team of Clyde McGrady and Kathryn Lyons.[8]
In 1962, Roll Call began sponsoring the annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity. In 1965, the first Roll Call Trophy was awarded—to the Republican team, which was the first team to win three games since Roll Call began its sponsorship. Since then, a new trophy has been awarded to the next team that wins three games (over the next three, four, or five years), following the year in which the most recent trophy was awarded. Roll Call also sponsors the Congressional Baseball Hall of Fame.
