Daily Pilot
American daily newspaper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Daily Pilot is a daily newspaper published by the Los Angeles Times to serve the communities of Sunset Beach, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach in Orange County, California.
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner | Los Angeles Times |
| Founder | M.H. Swain |
| Editor | Carol Cormaci |
| Founded | 1907 |
| Language | English |
| City | Fountain Valley, California |
| Country | United States |
| Website | dailypilot |
The Daily Pilot is one of the publications of Times Community News, which is a subsidiary of the Los Angeles Times.[1][2]
History
In March 1907, M.H. Swain, of Long Beach, founded a weekly newspaper called the Newport News.[3] In July 1907, Swain sold the News to Raymond Wayman, former editor of the Huntington Beach News.[4] The sale was for $10 and Swain left town without telling Wayman that the business was up to $2,000 in debt.[5] In June 1908, Wayman sold the paper to Walter A. Cornelius,[6] who published it for a dozen years until 1920, when he sold the News to Charles B. Wheatley.[7]
In 1922, Samuel A. Meyer, owner of the Chandler Arizonan, purchased the News from Wheatley.[8][9] In 1925, Meyer purchased the Balboa Bulletin and Costa Mesa Courier from J. Winterbourne and consolidated them together to form the Balboa Times.[10] In 1928, Meyer was sued for libel by H.L. Sherman, publisher of a rival paper called the Harbor Herald at Newport Beach. He sought $55,000 in damages.[11] The jury deliberated for under an hour and then awarded Sherman $1, plus another $100 for attorney's fee.[12] In 1946, Meyers retired as publisher after two decades and was succeeded by Sam D. Porter, who had acquired a controlling interest in the business.[13]
In March 1948, Porter expanded the paper from a semi-weekly into a daily with a circulation of 2,500.[14] The combined Newport News and Balboa Times was called the Daily News-Times.[15] In December 1948, Porter dissolved his partnership with Lucius Smith III, who became a co-owner at some point, and the business entered receivership.[16] Clyde F. Rex published the paper for a month,[16] before it was sold at auction to Victor W. Weathers and Homer O. Cotton, former publishers of the South Gate Press-Tribune and Indo Date Palm.[17] Shortly after the sale, the new owners acquired the Newport Bay Post and Shopping News.[18]
In March 1949, the News-Times reverted to a semi-weekly.[19] In April 1949, Ben Otis Reddick, publisher of the Newport-Balboa Press, acquired the company from Weathers and Cotton.[20] In 1954, Reddick consolidated the News-Times and the Press to form the Newport Harbor News-Press. [21] In 1961, Times Mirror purchased the Orange Coast Daily Pilot. At that time the paper had three editions: The Costa Mesa Globe Herald Daily Pilot, the Newport Harbor Daily Pilot, and Huntington Beach Daily Pilot. The combined paid circulation was 17,000.[22][23] In April 1962, Reddick sold the News-Press to the Ridder family, who owned a chain papers including the Long Beach Press-Telegram and Pasadena Star-News.[24][25] In September 1962, Times Mirror acquired the News-Press,[26] and then merged it into the Daily Pilot.[27]
The Daily Pilot and three weekly papers were acquired by Ingersoll Publications in 1982,[28] which purchased the Huntington Beach Independent in 1985.[29] The Daily Pilot and Independent were sold to Adams Communications in 1988.[30] A year later Robert E. Page, former publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, bought the papers with financial backing from New York businessman Elliot Stein.[31][32] The Glendale News Press and Burbank Leader were acquired a week later.[33] In 1993, Times Mirror bought the Daily Pilot, News Press, Independent and Leader from Page Group Publishing.[34] In 2016, the Huntington Beach Independent and the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot were merged into the Daily Pilot.[35]