Henderson Gleaner

Clarence Christian (C .C.) Givens founded The Gleaner in 1883 in Providence, Kentucky, located approximately 35 miles south of Henderson. Givens remained there for six months, then moved his newspaper farther south to Madisonville, Kentucky. In July 1885, Givens relocated the Gleaner to Henderson. It became a daily publication in 1888 with the exception that it produced no Monday edition, and was published as the Henderson Morning Gleaner.

The Gleaner wasn't the city's first or only newspaper. The Columbian first published in 1823, and the Henderson Reporter was in production from 1853 through 1885. At least a dozen other newspapers also operated in Henderson for various lengths of times, but few if any copies of those papers have survived.

The Gleaner was also a peer of the Henderson Journal, founded in 1883 as a weekly afternoon paper. One of its founders was Edmund L. Starling, a colonel with the Union Army during the Civil War, a former mayor of Henderson and a former editor of the Reporter. Starling in 1887 produced the History of Henderson County, a thick volume that has served as a foundation for subsequent Henderson history books.

The Henderson Morning Gleaner and Henderson Evening Journal competed for several years. By 1909, the Evening Journal was losing $500 a week and had been taken over by its bank. A young Illinois native, Leigh Harris, bought the Journal. Harris' first editorial consisted of a single sentence: "I have come to Henderson to run a newspaper."[7]

In about 1920, Harris negotiated a merger of the Gleaner and Journal with the Givens family, creating the Henderson Gleaner and Journal. (The word "Journal" was dropped from the masthead in 1973.) Harris later bought out C. C. Givens altogether, becoming the city's sole newspaper publisher. Harris chaired numerous Henderson causes and committees, including serving as chairman of the local American Red Cross chapter during the Ohio River flood of 1937. Henderson was one of the few cities along the Ohio River that escaped the floodwaters of 1937, owing to its position on a bluff well above the river. Harris soon noted in his newspaper that Henderson is "on the Ohio but never in it." He used that as a marketing tool as he and other prominent citizens worked to attract new industries to Henderson.[8]

After Harris' death in 1955, the family leased the newspaper to J. Albert Dear of Jersey City, New Jersey. His company, Dear Publication and Radio Inc., bought the newspaper outright two years later.

In 1960, the Dear family sent a son, Walter Dear II, to Henderson to serve as promotions manager, beginning a new era for the Gleaner. He became editor in 1963 and later served as publisher. Dear promoted the community, much as Leigh Harris had a generation earlier. Dear was among a handful of Hendersonians who served as primary fundraisers for community improvements such as a new YMCA building, a Fine Arts Center on the Henderson Community College campus, a new Salvation Army center and other projects.

The newspaper constructed a new office and printing plant at 455 Klutey Park Plaza in suburban Henderson, relocating there in 1976.

In 1986, Walt and Martha Dear and their children bought The Gleaner, several western Kentucky weekly newspapers (the Benton Tribune-Courier, McLean County News, Ohio County News and Franklin Favorite, plus the Portland, Tennessee Leader). and a small radio station in Franklin, Kentucky, from the rest of their family. They later acquired the Union County Advocate in Morganfield, Kentucky, as well.

In 1997, the Dear family sold The Gleaner and other media holdings to the A. H. Belo Corp., a Texas media company that owns The Dallas Morning News. Belo had purchased The Messenger-Inquirer in nearby Owensboro, a year earlier. Belo subsequently decided that the two Kentucky newspapers weren't core to Belo's business of operating newspapers and television stations in larger high-growth markets, particularly in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest.[9]

Belo sold The Gleaner to Scripps in 2000, making it a sister paper to the Evansville Courier & Press. As had been the case with Belo, the Courier and E. W. Scripps left The Gleaner editorially independent, although Henderson readers later criticized the decision to merge The Gleaner and Courier & Press classified advertising. The Gleaner's Website is merged into a separate section on the Courier & Press Website.

In 2015, Scripps decided to leave the newspaper business and focus instead on broadcasting. It sold its newspapers, including The Gleaner, to the newly formed Journal Media Group on April 1, 2015.

Gannett acquired Journal Media Group effective April 8, 2016. Gleaner staff-written stories are now labeled as being associated with the USA TODAY Network,[10] which references Gannett's flagship newspaper, USA Today.

• For nearly a quarter-century, the newspaper's name appeared in lower case on its flag on the front page. On April 27, 1973, the newspaper name changed from "The Gleaner-Journal" to "the gleaner".[11] It renamed so until August 10, 1997, when the name appeared in upper case, as "The Gleaner."[12]
• "Gleaner" is the name of a few other newspapers, including the Jamaica Gleaner of Kingston, Jamaica.; the Northeast News Gleaner, a weekly newspaper in Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; The Gleaner of Huntingdon, Québec, Canada; and The Daily Gleaner of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada .
• Three former Gleaner photojournalists went on to receive the Pulitzer Prize for their work at other newspapers. Henderson native William Snyder has won or shared in three Pulitzers (in 1986, 1991 and 1993) for his work at The Dallas Morning News, and in 2006 as director of photography of the newspaper, eight members of his staff won a Pulitzer; Keith Williams, also a native of Henderson, shared in a 1976 Pulitzer with The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. And J. Scott Applewhite has shared two Pulitzers (in 1993 and 1999) for his work with The Associated Press.
• Both former Gleaner publisher and owner Walt Dear and retired editor Ron Jenkins have been selected for the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame at the University of Kentucky's School of Journalism and Telecommunications. Dear was inducted in 1999. Jenkins was inducted in April 2007.
• In 2016, longtime Gleaner reporters and columnists Chuck and Donna Stinnett were also inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.[13] They are the second husband/wife duo from the Gleaner to be so honored. Columnist Judy Jenkins was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015, joining her husband, Ron.[14]

• Journalist and photo agency owner Ewing Galloway had been a reporter for the Gleaner

• "Newspaper takes on new name, building". (May 13, 1979). The Gleaner, p. 34.
• Armstrong, Francele Harris, Leigh and Jane—A Love Story. (The Carlton Press, 1974)
• "E.W. Scripps to buy Gleaner," (October 6, 2000). The Gleaner, p. A-1
• "A newspaper's history (A capsule history of The Gleaner)," (October 6, 2000). The Gleaner, p. A-1.
• Letters to the Editor concerning classified ad changes, (March 24, 2001); (March 31, 2001); and (April 4, 2001). The Gleaner, p. A-4.
• "Change is an unsettling thing" column by Gleaner Editor Ron Jenkins, (March 18, 2001). The Gleaner, p. A-4.

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