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The Journal News was created through a merger of several daily community newspapers serving the lower Hudson, which had previously been organized under the Gannett Suburban Newspapers umbrella; the earliest ancestor of the paper dates to 1852. Although the current newspaper's name comes from the Rockland Journal-News, which was based in West Nyack, New York, and served Rockland County, the Rockland Journal-News was actually the third-largest newspaper that Gannett merged to create the larger newspaper. The Reporter Dispatch from White Plains, New York, and the Herald Statesman in Yonkers were larger and served Westchester County.
For years prior to the October 12, 1998, merger that created The Journal News, ten of the newspapers shared some content and printing presses, although the Rockland Journal-News, formerly The Journal-News, the Rockland County Evening Journal and the Nyack Evening Journal, operated its own full composing room and printing press until fall 1996. The Rockland Journal-News had an independent staff of editors, writers, photographers, an artist, etc., from the time of the 1964 purchase by Gannett until the 1996-1998 consolidation period. In that, there was a fierce independence that led to exceptional reporting and photography on both sides of the Hudson River.
Gannett acquired nine of the newspapers in 1964 from the Macy family and added The Star in Peekskill, New York in 1985.[2] These newspapers previously appeared on newsstands in the evening. In 1989, Gannett created a morning edition for Putnam County, Westchester, and the Bronx called The Sunrise,[3] but it folded after a year. Today, The Journal News appears in the morning like other New York dailies.
Mergers
Newspapers that merged in 1998 to create The Journal News:
The Patent Trader (Mount Kisco) (itself the product of a 1956 merger of Northern Westchester papers) was subsequently acquired by Gannett and folded in 2007.
Reporter Dispatch paperboy certificate for boys under age 14 in 1970 when girls were not allowed to deliver newspapers
The Journal News successfully launched Putnam Magazine and Rockland Magazine in 2005, and Scarsdale Magazine (originally InTown Scarsdale) in early 2006.
In 2005, The Journal News expanded its Custom Publishing division and began publishing a series of suburban lifestyle magazines about the Lower Hudson Valley region. The first of these publications was InTown, which covered the Westchester market with hyper-local editions targeting different regions of the county:[citation needed] In late 2006, these numerous editions were all consolidated into one county-wide publication, InTown Westchester, which publishes 10 times a year.[citation needed]
Bronxville/Tuckahoe/Eastchester
Larchmont/Mamaroneck
Northern Westchester (Bedford, Chappaqua, Katonah, Mount Kisco)
River Towns (Dobbs Ferry, Hastings, Irvington, Tarrytown)
Rye/Harrison/Purchase
Scarsdale
White Plains
The Journal News also publishes five ultra-local community weekly Express newspapers serving Northern Westchester, Putnam, Yorktown/Cortlandt, Sound Shore, and White Plains as well as the Review Press, a weekly newspaper covering Bronxville, Eastchester, and Tuckahoe.
The Journal News' website, LoHud.com, features daily news updates, more than 40 blogs, as well as Varsity Insider, an online source for varsity sports, featuring rosters, schedules, and statistic for high school teams throughout the Lower Hudson Valley region.[4]
On March 7, 2010 The Journal News closed its press and outsourced printing.[citation needed]
On August 7, 2013, the newspaper laid off 26 staff members, including 17 journalists, and its editor, Caryn McBride.[5][6]
In 2022, Mary Dolan, who oversaw five years of dwindling circulation and online readership after cutting the sports department to the bone and pushing soft stories rather than accountability journalism, was sacked as news director and replaced with former photo editor Carrie Yale as Gannett once again cut editorial staff.
2012–2013 pistol permit map controversy
On December 22, 2012, The Journal News published an interactive map showing the names, addresses and home addresses of all pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland Counties.[11] Both Westchester and Rockland residents and major, national news organizations sharply criticized the newspaper.[12][13] Despite this, the newspaper's editor and vice president, CynDee Royle, said that they had sought to publish even more detailed information, to which the counties had denied The Journal News access,[13] and that the newspaper sued neighboring Putnam County for refusing to provide similar information.[14]
The following day, blogger Christopher Fountain published the names and addresses of the staff of The Journal News.[15][16] The newspaper and some of its staff responded by hiring armed security guards, a move that critics called hypocritical considering the paper's anti-gun stance.[17][18][19]
Rockland County law enforcement officers condemned The Journal News' map, saying that it endangered lives, including those of corrections officers.[20] Several newspapers also published reports of victims of domestic violence, rape, or other violent crimes who reported that their attackers now had possession of their home addresses.[21]
As a result of the publication, protests were held at the State Capitol in Albany,[22] and the New York State Legislature passed a law allowing gun owners in the state to opt out of having their identifying information be available to the public.[14] This catalyzed other states across the country to pass similar privacy measures.[22]
Newsday reported that police were investigating if The Journal News pistol permit map played a role in a burglary in White Plains, New York. According to police, at least two burglars broke into a home on January 12, 2013 and unsuccessfully attempted to open a gun safe containing legally owned weapons. Police were investigating what role, if any, the Journal News database played in the burglars' decision to target the home.[11][needs update]
On January 19, 2013, the newspaper removed the interactive map,[23] although the information it contained was subsequently leaked on the Internet.[24]
