The Post-Standard

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The Post-Standard is the major daily newspaper servicing the greater Syracuse, New York metro area. Affiliated with Syracuse.com, it is owned by Advance Publications. The Post-Standard features regular political commentary from Sean Kirst and local commentary by Dick Case. It is home-delivered in the four counties that make up the Syracuse metro area. Additionally, it is available in many retail outlets throughout the North Country and Southern Tier of New York.

[edit] History

The Post-Standard was founded in 1829 as the Onondaga Standard. It became the Daily Standard in the 1880s and merged with the Syracuse Post on New Year's Day in 1899. It was on this day that the name was changed to The Post-Standard.

During this time, the Syracuse Herald-Journal also co-existed. The Herald-Journal was the result of the merger of the Syracuse Journal and the Evening Herald in 1939. Soon afterward, William Randolph Hearst's paper, the Sunday American, became known as the Herald American. The Herald-Journal, Herald American, and The Post-Standard all were purchased in 1944 by Samuel I. Newhouse, later benefactor of Syracuse University's acclaimed S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

For the most part, the papers operated independently from each other, outside of ownership. The Post-Standard was published in the morning, the Herald-Journal in the afternoon, and the Herald American on Sundays (which technically served as both the Post and the Herald). These newspapers were known collectively as the Syracuse Newspapers and indeed the Post-Standard is often still referred to today by this term by some locals.

In 1993, the local feature desks were merged into one section, CNY, in reference to Central New York. In 2001, the Herald-Journal folded, leaving one paper, The Post-Standard.

Today, the papers are still owned by the Newhouse family, whose company is named Advance Publications. Along with the Syracuse paper, Advance also publishes Parade Magazine, the Staten Island Advance, The Star-Ledger in New Jersey,The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, The Oregonian in Portland, and The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.

The Post-Standard publishes three additional editions: Cayuga, Madison, and Oswego for the other three counties of the metropolitan area. It has seven news bureaus throughout Central New York, as well as one in Albany (state capital) and Washington, DC.

Before the merger with the evening paper, the Post-Standard was named as among the "10 best newspapers in America with a circulation of under 100,000" by Al Neuharth of USA Today (run by a competing organization). Since the merger, circulation has increased to over 120,000. Even outside of its four-county delivery area, the paper is available in many convenience stores and supermarkets from the Canadian to the Pennsylvanian border. The newspaper partly caters to this audience as well, covering many stories from the Ithaca, Utica, and Watertown areas. Since opening a new printing press in 2002, the paper calls itself "America's Most Colorful Newspaper," as almost every page contains color. The Post-Standard partners with Syracuse.com to provide its content online.

[edit] Editorial viewpoint

In former years, the Syracuse newspapers were known for their conservative, pro-business slant. However, during the 2000s, the Post-Standard has taken a significantly more liberal viewpoint on local, state and especially national issues, although its editorial style is best described as left of center.

[edit] Investigations

In 2004 and 2005, the Post-Standard published in-depth investigative pieces focusing especially on the inner workings of Albany, including Gov. George Pataki's office and the New York Legislature. Recent investigations have focused on the allocation of state-borrowed money by the leaders of the state Senate and Assembly; and also on the controversy over the secretive sale of public lands along the Erie Canal by the New York State Canal Corporation for less than the land's market value.

[edit] References

1. ^ 2007 Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the U.S. by Circulation (PDF). BurrellesLuce (2007-03-31). Retrieved on 2007-05-31.

[edit] External links

• Syracuse.com, which hosts the paper online