Herald-Journal
Ambrose Gonzales, founder and publisher of the State in Columbia, bought the indebted Herald in 1905 and hired Charles O. Hearon of Virginia as the editor. Hearon became influential in the state, campaigning for open city council meetings, a state highway system, and industrial development.
(2003 circulation: 49,372 daily and 57,727 Sunday). The Spartanburg Herald-Journal can be traced to the Spartan, a weekly newspaper founded by attorney T. O. P. Vernon and first published on December 22, 1843. State legislator J. W. Tucker bought half the business in 1851 and then sold to the Trimmier brothers, who hired Vernon back as the associate editor. They changed the newspaper’s name to the Carolina Spartan in 1860. A paper shortage stopped publication for two weeks during 1863 and between May 1, 1865, and February 1866, when portions of the state were occupied by Union troops. Another Spartanburg newspaper, the Orphan’s Friend, published by the children of the Carolina Orphan Home, began in 1873 as a weekly. It changed its name to the Spartanburg Herald by 1875 and became a daily in 1890. The Journal Publishing Company bought the Carolina Spartan in 1900, which became the Spartanburg Journal and published six days a week.
Ambrose Gonzales, founder and publisher of the State in Columbia, bought the indebted Herald in 1905 and hired Charles O. Hearon of Virginia as the editor. Hearon became influential in the state, campaigning for open city council meetings, a state highway system, and industrial development. After learning that the competing Journal might become a political organ of controversial Governor Cole Blease, Gonzales reportedly gave $7,000 toward its purchase. The Herald bought its competitor in 1914, and the Journal became Spartanburg’s afternoon newspaper. Hearon and W. W. Holland bought both newspapers from the Gonzales family in 1924. Later purchased in 1947 by Charles E. Marsh of Texas, the newspapers were subsequently bequeathed to a private foundation. They merged to become the Herald-Journal on October 1, 1982. The New York Times Newspaper Group bought the Herald-Journal in 1985 and on-line service began in 1995.
McNeeley, Patricia G. The Palmetto Press: The History of South Carolina’s Newspapers and the Press Association. Columbia: South Carolina Press Association, 1998.
