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December 11, 1950: Sale of The Oregonian to S.I. Newhouse Reported

December 11, 2011 by Dave Leave a Comment

The Oregonian front page, 11 December 1950The first issue of The Oregonian, the oldest newspaper in continuous production west of Salt Lake City, was published on December 4, 1850. Almost exactly one hundred years later, on December 11, 1950, the paper reported its sale to Samuel I. Newhouse (The Oregonian, 11 December 1950).

The Oregonian had been founded by Thomas J. Dryer, and was sold to Henry L. Pittock ten years later. Pittock sold controlling interest of the paper to several prominent Portland businessmen, including H. W. Corbett and W. Lair Hill, in 1872. Five years later former, and future, editor Harvey W. Scott bought Corbett’s stock and Scott and Pittock together bought all the remaining stock. Until the 1950 sale ownership remained almost exclusively with the Scott and Pittock estates (Ibid.).

The sale price was over $5,000,000. The Newhouse family-owned Advance Publications still owns The Oregonian today.

Filed Under: History, Media, Oregon, Portland, The West, This Day in History

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