New Hampshire Union Leader

History

Like many newspapers, the Union Leader has a complex history involving mergers and buyouts.

The weekly Union became the Manchester Daily Union on March 31, 1863. The afternoon Union became a morning Daily Union (dropping the "Manchester"). Although the Union began as a Democratic paper, by the early 1910s it had been purchased by Londonderry politician Rosecrans Pillsbury, a Republican.

In October 1912, the competing Manchester Leader was founded by Frank Knox, later Secretary of the Navy during World War II, and financed by then-Governor Robert P. Bass, a member of the Progressive (or Bull Moose) Party who was attempting to promote the Progressive cause in New Hampshire. The newspaper was so successful that Knox bought out the Union, and the two newspapers merged under the banner of the Union-Leader Corporation July 1913. Owing to Pillsbury's role in the company, both papers espoused a moderate Republican, pro-business stance.

Following Knox's death in 1944, William Loeb purchased the company, merging the Union and Leader into a single morning paper, the Manchester Union-Leader, in 1948. Under Loeb's watch, the Union-Leader moved sharply to the right. He often placed editorials on the front page and supported highly conservative candidates for public office. He dropped Manchester from the paper's masthead in the mid-1970s to emphasize the fact that it is the only statewide newspaper in New Hampshire.

In 2000, after Nackey Loeb's death on January 8, Joseph McQuaid, the son and nephew of the founders of the New Hampshire Sunday News, Bernard J. and Elias McQuaid, took over as publisher. He was succeeded by his son, Brendan, in 2020.

On April 4, 2005, it changed its name to the New Hampshire Union Leader to reflect its statewide reach. However, it is still called the Manchester Union Leader by some residents due to its historical legacy.

The New Hampshire Sunday News was created in 1948 and later, after Loeb's attempts to start a Sunday edition of the Union-Leader failed, was purchased by the Union-Leader Corporation. The Union Leader published the Sunday News as its Sunday edition for decades but converted it to Saturday publication as of February 10, 2024.

In January 2025, majority ownership of the paper moved from the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications, a nonprofit organization, to two private investors.

File:Manchester Union Democrat office 1877.svg|Office of the Manchester Daily Union and its publisher Campbell & Hanscom in 1877 File:Manchester Courthouse, New Hampshire.jpg|The downtown Union Leader building on Amherst Street was converted to Manchester District Court File:Manchester Union Leader building IMG_2758.JPG|New Hampshire Union Leader building at 100 William Loeb Drive in Manchester, New Hampshire

Contributors

• John DiStaso
• Tom Fahey
• Kevin Landrigan

Two notable early employees of the New Hampshire Sunday News were Ralph M. Blagden, the first managing editor,{{cite web | access-date = 2008-06-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080511221633/http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/mcdonaldtoll.cfm | archive-date = 2008-05-11 | url-status = live | access-date = 2008-06-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040908084549/http://www.ccjaonline.org/news/2001/02/20/Summer2000/Pioneer.Journalists.Courage.To.Stand.For.Justice.In.Society-54399.shtml | archive-date = September 8, 2004 | url-status = dead

Editorial style

Throughout their existence, the Union Leader and its predecessors have been closely involved in state politics and during the quadrennial United States presidential election, national politics. Ever since the Loebs bought the paper, its orientation has been unyieldingly conservative (though the paper was already a reliable supporter of the GOP long before the Loebs bought it), a tradition that continued after McQuaid took over the paper. The paper's hard-hitting editorials, sometimes written by the publisher and featured on the front page, drew national attention and frequently prompted harsh criticism:

After 2018, when the newspaper laid off its full-time editorial writer, the Union Leader's brash editorial tone softened.

The Union Leader had endorsed Newt Gingrich in the 2012 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, Chris Christie in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries Neither candidate won the primary.

In 2016, the Union Leader endorsed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson for president—the first time in 100 years that the paper and its predecessors had not endorsed a Republican.

The Union Leader remained a staunch opponent of Trump after his election. In 2020, it endorsed Democratic candidate Joe Biden for president.

In 2024, publisher Brendan McQuaid announced that the paper would not endorse either "terrible" presidential candidate.

Cutbacks and reduced circulation

In a message printed in the paper in early 2009, publisher Joseph McQuaid announced that owing to financial difficulties affecting the entire newspaper industry, the Saturday edition of the paper would no longer be distributed outside of the Greater Manchester area and that Saturday content would be moved to a combined Friday/Saturday edition.{{Cite news | author-link = Joseph McQuaid

In 2015, the paper's flagship building at 100 William Loeb Drive was subdivided into parcels and offered for lease. In 2017, the Union Leader building was sold to investor Peter Levine for $3.8 million after being on the market for about four years. The newspaper leased back space to remain in the building at 100 William Loeb Drive. Three other tenants, two of them charter schools and a distributor, also were occupying space in the building at the time of the sale.

On February 4, 2024, publisher Brendan J. McQuaid announced that future New Hampshire Sunday News editions would be distributed on Saturdays due to changes affecting the news industry including a shortage of labor. McQuaid explained that mail subscribers could now receive the Sunday News on Saturdays.

After repeated rounds of layoffs over several years, the newspaper moved into smaller quarters in Manchester's downtown Millyard in the summer of 2024.

The newspaper said in 2011 that its daily circulation was 45,536, rising to 64,068 on Sundays.

In November 2024, New Hampshire Public Radio reported that the publisher said the Sunday circulation was about 20,000.

References

• Cash, Kevin. Who the Hell Is William Loeb? Manchester, NH: Amoskeag Press, 1975.
• Roper, Scott. "Manchester Union-Leader. In Burt Feintuch and David Watters, editors, Encyclopedia of New England. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.
• Wright, James. The Progressive Yankees: Republican Reformers in New Hampshire, 1906–1916. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1987.

References

1. See also: [[Canuck letter]]
2. (January 7, 2025). "New investors bring ownership overhaul at New Hampshire Union Leader".
3. (2021). "Manchester Historic Association Historic Preservation Awards Recipients 1993-2021". Manchester Historic Association.
4. (7 January 2000). "A Real Taste of Politics in New Hampshire". The New York Times.
5. White, Theodore Harold. (1973). "[[The Making of the President, 1972]]". Atheneum Publishers.
6. Joseph W. McQuaid. "[http://www.unionleader.com/article/20111127/NEWS0605/711279999/-1/opinion01 An Editorial: For President, Newt Gingrich] {{Webarchive. link. (March 3, 2016 " (November 27, 2011). ''New Hampshire Union Leader''.)
7. (November 28, 2015). "For our safety, our future: Chris Christie for President". New Hampshire Union Leader.
8. (September 14, 2016). "Union Leader of New Hampshire Endorses Gary Johnson over Donald Trump". The New York Times.
9. (16 September 2017). "Union Leader Building Sells for $3.8M in Manchester".
10. (February 4, 2024). "New Union Leader app launched, Sunday News moving to Saturday delivery".
11. Bookman, Todd. (2024-11-20). "NH Union Leader gets $1M loan through state program to pay pension debts".