The Seattle Star

Seattle Daily Star
Seattle Daily Star newspaper office, circa 1900
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Founder(s)Edward Willis
PublisherE.H. Wells & Co.
FoundedFeb 2, 1899-1947
CountryUnited States
ISSN2159-5577
OCLC number17285351
Front page of the April 6, 1917, issue of The Seattle Star, announcing the United States' entrance into World War I

The Seattle Star was a daily newspaper that ran from February 25, 1899,[1] to August 13, 1947. It was owned by E. W. Scripps and in 1920 was transferred to Scripps McRae League of Newspapers (later Scripps-Canfield League), after a falling-out within the Scripps family.[citation needed] The company, which eventually became Scripps League Newspapers, Inc., owned the paper until 1942, when it was sold to a group of local Seattle businessmen including Howard Parrish, its publisher. Soon after the sale, it reverted to its previous broadsheet format after having been a tabloid for a short time. Of the three Seattle general circulation dailies (Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Seattle Times being the other two), it was the smallest in circulation, although it had been the largest paper in the city around 1900.[citation needed]

For most of its life the paper was known as the "working man's" or "working person's" paper. It was staunchly pro-labor, reflecting the values of E.W. Scripps.[2] In 1919, it became vehemently anti-Japanese, especially toward Japanese-Americans who lived in its vicinity.[3][4]

After World War II, all of its assets minus the building and machinery were sold to The Seattle Times for $360,000 in 1947. Management said the sale was needed because of the rising labor costs and the newsprint shortage.[5][4]

  1. ^ Baldasty, Gerald J. (1999). E. W. Scripps and the Business of Newspapers, p. 33. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.
  2. ^ "Ingratitude?" in I Protest: Selected Disquisitions of E. W. Scripps, edited by Oliver Knight. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966.
  3. ^ Neiwert, David A. (2005). Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese American Community, pp. 57–60. Palgrave Macmillan.
  4. ^ a b Krona, Rochelle (2008). "World War II and Japanese Internment in the Seattle Star". Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project. University of Washington. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
  5. ^ Wilma, David (December 21, 2000). "The Seattle Star ends publication on August 13, 1947". HistoryLink. Retrieved June 14, 2018.