City: Cincinnati, OH

Category: Media

Telephone: (513) 721-2700

Address: 312 Elm Street

Description: The morning Enquirer is a staple in the area; local residents are addicted to it, along with their coffee and toast. The Enquirer offers a decidedly conservative editorial slant, paralleling the views of most area residents. The paper’s conservative editorial nature is often offset by the more liberal work of editorial cartoonist Jim Borgman. Borgman won the paper’s only Pulitzer Prize in 1991 for his humorous and well-stated editorial drawings.In addition to Borgman’s cartoon, which is a daily must-see, popular writers and columnists include Jim Knippenberg in the “Life” section and Paul Daugherty in sports.The paper sometimes struggles, though, with its position as the area’s source for national and international news and its desire to also be a community paper. Even though it can’t do everything, it tries. The paper added more community news with zoned news pages each day. It also added a “Weekend” entertainment guide each Friday in an attempt to better cover the local entertainment scene, with reviews of local bands and nightlife. In 2004 the paper began publishing its own version of an alternative weekly, CiN Weekly, which is available at various downtown newsstands for free. While the free tabloid mimics the city alternative CityBeat in some respects, it is a toned-down, G-rated version that somewhat resembles the “Weekend” section available in the mainstream edition.The Enquirer was first published on April 10, 1841, and was the first newspaper in the nation to publish a Sunday edition, beginning in 1848. The paper has gone through a handful of different owners through the years. In 1952 the paper’s owner intended to sell the Enquirer to then rival Times-Star, but employee investments, wealthy sponsors, and bonds sold by brokers raised $7.5 million for a counteroffer and kept the paper alive as an employee-owned operation.In 1956 Cincinnati-based E. W. Scripps Company purchased a majority interest in the Enquirer from the employees but never exercised control. A court order in 1971 forced Scripps, which also owned the afternoon Post, to divest its ownership in the Enquirer. Scripps eventually sold its shares to American Financial Corporation, a privately owned company controlled by Cincinnati’s self-made millionaire Carl Lindner, who became the paper’s publisher. Lindner kept the paper for four years before selling to Combined Communications Corporation, a diversified media company that merged with Gannett Company Inc. in 1979.