The Times line and the News-Times: the Democratic paper, 1853–1938

1853–1938

The other line: The Tribune's great rival began as the St. Joseph County Forum, started in 1853 by Ariel Euclid Drapier and his son William H. Drapier — "the first attempt to establish a Democratic newspaper in St. Joseph county," as Howard puts it, and in Anderson & Cooley's stronger claim the first Democratic paper in Indiana or southern Michigan. The Drapiers were expert shorthand writers, and between sessions of the General Assembly they prepared the celebrated Brevier Reports of the legislature's debates; the younger son, Charles E. Drapier, ran the paper in their absences. A semi-weekly edition failed after a few months in 1858. For the vigor of its language on the conduct of the war, the Forum was suspended for a short time in 1863 by order of General Milo B. Hascall.

Sold to Edward Malloy, it became the National Union and then the South Bend Weekly Union; in December 1874 Charles L. Murray bought it and put his son Charles T. Murray in charge, and under the name of the Herald, published by the Herald Printing and Publishing Company, it became a morning daily. The elder Murray re-purchased the paper and took personal charge on 22 May 1876. Henry A. Peed owned and edited it from 1881 to 1883 and gave it the name it kept, the South Bend Times; the South Bend Times Company was formed 26 September 1881 and the Times Printing Company took over on 2 March 1882. In the spring of 1883 control passed to John B. Stoll, formerly of the Ligonier Banner — the paper William S. Holman called "the ablest Democratic paper in Indiana" — and Stoll's close associate Charles Albert McDonald worked beside him from 1883 until McDonald's death on 15 December 1906. Howard's verdict on the two-paper town of his day closes the line's first half: "no town in the state, perhaps in the whole country, that has two better newspapers than the South Bend Times and the South Bend Tribune."

The twentieth-century course is told in the paper's own souvenir history, published in the News-Times of 28 January 1921, which dated the paper's "real birth date" to the Forum's founding in 1853. A morning paper, the News, had been started in April 1908 — Building South Bend's record of its home says the Morning News was founded that year by E. J. Fogarty and others — engineered, in the souvenir's account, by William A. McInerny, Fogarty, and others of the party then in power in the city. In September 1911 McInerny induced Gabriel K. Summers to acquire the Times, and the two papers were brought under one ownership, incorporated as The News-Times. Through the interval the News continued as the morning paper under Chauncey Fassett and the Times as the evening paper under Stoll, who edited until October 1912 and was succeeded by Hugh Allen, brought from the Tacoma Times.

The merger of the two papers is dated 2 June 1913 in the Library of Congress's directory record; the History Museum's account dates the first issue under the combined imprint to 1 July 1913. The combined paper's own July 1913 issues carry the masthead of The News-Times Printing Company at 110 West Colfax Avenue, a sworn average daily circulation for May 1913 of 17,039, and a price of two cents. Hugh Allen remained editor until February 1914, when he left to become managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal; J. Walter McInerny managed the combination until October 1914, when Gabriel R. Summers bought the stock of all the other stockholders and became sole owner; in April 1917 Joseph M. Stephenson, Summers's son-in-law, was made publisher. The paper's own 1921 advertising in the city directory styled it "THE LEADING NEWSPAPER," sold "Every Morning and Sunday, or Every Evening and Sunday." Its editors across the run are carried in the Sources chapter: John H. Zuver, Boyd Gurley, Joseph M. Stephenson, Sidney B. Whipple, McCready Huston, and Fred Mills.

The end came in the Depression. The News-Times had published twice a day and changed to once a day in 1927; its circulation peaked in 1937; it had been published at a loss since 1931, by Stephenson's farewell account. The last issue appeared on 27 December 1938, its farewell headlined simply "30" — the printer's mark for the end of the story. The name did not stay buried: in the 2020s a local-history writer revived South Bend News-Times as the name of an online history publication, and it publishes under the old masthead today.

Sources:

1. Timothy E. Howard, History of St. Joseph County (1907), Chapter VII, §4 — the Forum of 1853, the Brevier Reports, the 1863 suspension, the Malloy and Murray successions, the Herald, Henry A. Peed and the Times name, the companies of 1881–82, Stoll's purchase of 1883, and McDonald.
2. South Bend News-Times, souvenir history, 28 January 1921 (Hoosier State Chronicles) — the paper's own account of its 1853 birth date, the McInerny–Summers consolidation of 1911, the editors of 1911–14, Summers's sole ownership of October 1914, and Stephenson's publishership from April 1917.
3. Library of Congress, Chronicling America, "About the South Bend News-Times," and Stephen J. Taylor, "A Short History of the South Bend News-Times," Hoosier State Chronicles (12 February 2015) — the merger of 2 June 1913, the 1927 change to once a day, the 1937 circulation peak; The History Museum, A Bend in Time podcast, S02E05 — the first combined-imprint issue of 1 July 1913, the losses from 1931, and the last issue of 27 December 1938 with its "30" farewell.
4. The South Bend News-Times, July 1913 issues (Hoosier State Chronicles) — the masthead at 110 West Colfax Avenue and the sworn May 1913 circulation of 17,039; Building South Bend (University of Notre Dame) — the Colfax Avenue plant, built for the paper in 1913, and the Morning News founding of 1908; R. L. Polk & Co., South Bend city directory (1921) — the paper's own advertising.
5. southbendnewstimes.com — the revived name in its present use.