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Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

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Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
The logo consists of a red circle on the far left containing two white lowercase letters "a" and "j" arranged diagonally, with a white line extending from the left edge of the circle with the "a" above and the "j" to its right. To the circle's right are the black words "Lubbock Avalanche-Journal" in serif and with the lowercase letters stylized to appear majuscule.
Photo of Lubbock Avalanche-Journal headquarters taken April 5, 2009.
TypeDailynewspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Gannett
Founder(s)John James Dillard, Thad Tubbs
EditorAdam Young[1]
FoundedMay 4, 1900;124 years ago(1900-05-04)asThe Avalanche
LanguageEnglish
Headquarters
CountryUnited States
Circulation7,260 (as of 2023)[2]
ISSN2331-6349(print)
2331-6357(web)
OCLCnumber13942131
Websitewww.lubbockonline.com

Lubbock Avalanche-Journalis anewspaperbased inLubbock, Texas,United States. It is owned byGannett.

History[edit]

The Lubbock Avalanchewas founded in 1900 by John James Dillard and Thad Tubbs. According to Dillard, the name "Avalanche"was chosen due to his desire that the newspaper surprise the citizens of Lubbock.[3]The newspaper was sold to James Lorenzo Dow in 1908. In 1922, theAvalanchebecame a daily newspaper (except for Mondays) and a year later added a morning edition.

In 1926, the owners of the rivalLubbock Daily Journal,editorCharles A. Guyand partner Dorrance Roderick, boughtThe Avalancheto formThe Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.The pair partnered withHouston Harteand Bernard Hanks, later ofHarte Hanks,as well as J. Lindsay Nunn ofThe Amarillo Daily News and Post.In 1928, Guy, Roderick, and Nunn bought control of theAvalanche-Journalfrom Harte and Hanks.[4]Guy was named editor and publisher in 1931 ofThe Avalanche-Journal,a position he held until 1972.[5]Other journalists to serve as editor were Jay Harris, Burle Pettit, Randy Sanders, Terry Greenberg, James Bennett, Jill Nevels-Haun and Adam Young.

TheAmarillo Globe-NewsPublishing Company, headed by Eugene A. Howe and Wilbur C. Hawk, would later own the majority ofThe Avalanche-Journal.In 1951, theWhittenburg familyinAmarilloacquired theAvalanche-Journal,after their Panhandle Publishing Company was merged with Globe-News company. In 1972, bothThe Avalanche-JournalandThe Amarillo Globe-Newswere acquired byMorris CommunicationsofAugusta,Georgia.[6]

On Tuesday, May 12, 1970, the day after a massive F5tornadohad devastated much of downtown Lubbock—including the Avalanche-Journal building at 8th Street and Avenue J—the newspaper managed to publish an eight-page edition by dictating reports to its sister paper, the Globe-News, in Amarillo, Texas. That morning a print run of 60,000 copies bearing the page-one headline "Twister Smashes Lubbock, 20 Dead, Hundreds Injured," the first printed news of the storm, went out from Amarillo, 100 miles north of Lubbock. The May 13 edition, listing names of the known dead, was published in the same manner, and by May 14The Avalanche-Journalwas again printed locally.[7]

During strikes over crop support prices in 1977, an editorial published in theLubbock Avalanche-Journalinfuriated farmers, who blockaded the newspaper's delivery docks with their tractors. The unsigned editorial accused farmers of using the "anti-social tactics of union goons." Farmers demanded an apology and formed a tractor blockade, preventing trucks from delivering newspapers. Editor Jay Harris spoke with the farmers and indicated the editorial was not intended to imply that the farmers were goons.[8]

In 2008,The Avalanche-Journalled an investigation into the 1985rapeconviction ofTim Cole,aTexas Tech Universitystudent who had died in prison in 1999 at the age of thirty-nine. The A-J's three-part series on Cole's exoneration in light of DNA evidence, "Hope Deferred," helped prompt a legislative ruling in Texas permitting posthumous pardons, and on March 1, 2010,GovernorRick Perrygranted the state's first posthumous pardon to Cole.[9]

The Avalanche-Journallaunched a full-color lifestyle publication,Lubbock Magazine,in April 2008. The magazine is published eight times a year.

In February 2011,The Avalanche-Journalbecame the first media company on the South Plains to launch an application for the iPad.[10]

In 2017, Morris Communications sold its newspapers toGateHouse Media.[11]

Journalists[edit]

Journalistswho got their start at theLubbock Avalanche-JournalincludeCBS Evening NewsanchorScott Pelley.

References[edit]

  1. ^Young, Adam (3 February 2018)."Lubbock Avalanche-Journal names Adam Young as editor".Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.eISSN2331-6357.ISSN2331-6349.LCCNsn86088055.OCLC13942131.Retrieved19 December2021.
  2. ^"2023 Texas Newspaper Directory".Texas Press Association.Archived fromthe originalon 2023-05-03.Retrieved2023-05-03.
  3. ^Hensley, Doug (17 May 2010)."Newspaper editors, publishers build Lubbock Avalanche-Journal into institution".Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.eISSN2331-6357.ISSN2331-6349.LCCNsn86088055.OCLC13942131.Archivedfrom the original on 28 March 2023.Retrieved28 March2023.
  4. ^Logue Post, Sally Ann (1984). "5".With or Without Offense: Bernard Hanks and the Abilene Reporter-News(PDF)(M.A. thesis). Texas Tech University. pp. 49–50.
  5. ^"Chas. A Guy Retires to Close Long Career at A-J".Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Oct 27, 1972. p. A-15.
  6. ^"Lubbock Avalanche-Journal".Texas Press Association. Archived fromthe originalon December 12, 2013.RetrievedMay 18,2013.
  7. ^Tinnell, Jeff (May 6, 1990)."A-J's May 12 Edition Took the Long Way Home".Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
  8. ^"Farmers Block Newspaper".Ellensburg Daily Record.December 21, 1977.
  9. ^Elliott Blackburn, "Governor makes Cole pardon official",The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal,2 March 2010.
  10. ^Terry Greenberg, "A-J's iPad app ready to come out of shadows",The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal,6 February 2011.
  11. ^"Morris Announces Sale of Publications to Gatehouse Media".Morris Communications. 2017-08-09.Retrieved2018-02-19.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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