The Plain Dealer

Founding

The newspaper was established in January 1842 when two brothers, Joseph William Gray and Admiral Nelson Gray, took over The Cleveland Advertiser and changed its name to The Plain Dealer. The Cleveland Advertiser had been published from 1831 to 1841.[5] Some sources attribute the current spelling of the city name to The Cleveland Advertiser's dropping the first "a" from the name of the city's founder, Moses Cleaveland, so the newspaper's name would fit on the masthead but others dispute that story.[6][7]

Name

When the Gray brothers began publishing their newspaper in 1842, they wrote an explanation of their choice of name; after a discussion of several other possible names, they wrote, "but our democracy and modesty suggest the only name that befits the occasion, the PLAIN DEALER."[8][9]

History

Declining circulation

The paper's circulation declined from the 1980s through about the first decade of the twenty-first century, then dropped precipitously in the following decade or so; the following figures (using circulation numbers derived from the same source, though made public only in other sources and in a patchwork fashion) show that in the 24 years between 1983 and 2007 the paper's circulation dropped by 33% (daily) and 11% (Sunday), while in the next 12 years between 2007 and 2019, it lost a further 79% and 62% of its daily and Sunday circulation.

Reductions in newspaper size and delivery

On December 18, 2005, The Plain Dealer ceased publication of its weekly Sunday Magazine, which had been published since 1919. Its demise was attributed to rising expenses and the poor economy. The editor of The Plain Dealer, Doug Clifton, said that stories that would formerly have appeared in the Sunday Magazine would be integrated into other areas of the paper.[98][99]

Removal of debate video

In October 2014, the Northeast Ohio Media Group hosted the three Ohio candidates for governor in what would be their only joint appearance. The debate was held before the NEOMG's editorial board (which also serves as the editorial board of The Plain Dealer) and NEOMG reporters. Incumbent Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, largely ignored his main rival, Democrat Ed FitzGerald. Kasich refused to admit he could hear the questions of FitzGerald, who was sitting next to him and insisted that a reporter repeat them.[133]

During the debate, a video camera was positioned eight feet in front of the candidates. The resulting video was posted on Cleveland.com. A few days later, however, it was removed.[134] When other sites posted copies of the now-deleted video, the NEOMG sent letters threatening legal action. TechDirt reported that the owner of the Cleveland Plain Dealer had demanded that the unflattering video be taken down.[135] The NEOMG's actions were covered by other media organizations

Political leanings

In the presidential election of 1864, the paper was strongly opposed to the reelection of Abraham Lincoln. An editorial dated 5 November asked rhetorically, "Do you want four more years of war? Vote for Lincoln. Do you want the Constitution destroyed? Vote for Lincoln... Do you want the degraded Negros made your social and political equals? Vote for Lincoln."[151]

The Plain Dealer has been criticized in the past by liberal columnists for staking out generally conservative positions on its editorial page, despite serving a predominantly Democratic readership base. In 2004, the editorial board voted to endorse Democratic U.S. Senator John Kerry; after publisher Alex Machaskee overruled it, ordering the board to write an endorsement of Republican George W. Bush, editorial page editor Brent Larkin persuaded Machaskee to withhold any endorsement.[152] The news coverage is generally more neutral, with national and international news often culled from wire services including The New York Times.

The paper had been criticized as being too soft in its coverage of Senator George Voinovich