History of the Kennebec Journal
From 1815 to the early 1820s, the Augusta area was without a newspaper. The town's business and social interests felt this void deeply. In response to the city's needs, the Kennebec Journal began publishing in January 1825, started by Russell Eaton and Luther Severance, a pair of young printers.
It remains the oldest newspaper in Maine.
The first issue of the Kennebec Journal was printed in the newspaper's first offices, at the corner of Bridge and Water streets in Augusta. The circulation was 450, and the subscription price was $2 per year.
Although the original intention of Eaton and Severance had been to create a paper for the residents of Augusta, it was decided that Kennebec Journal would be a more appropriate name for the daily, since the teamžs long-term vision for the paper was one of "a paper of extended and useful circulation."
The newspaper's most famous publisher was James G. Blaine, who ran the operation from 1854 to 1857. Blaine, who was a U.S. Senator for Maine, ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of the United States in 1888.
The operation remained at the Water Street location until 1929, when it was moved to Willow Street, where it remained until the Western Avenue location was built in 1961.
Today, the KJ circulates to 18,000 daily subscribers on a seven-day, morning publication schedule. The Central Maine Morning Sentinel is also printed at the facility at 274 Western Ave.
The two dailies recently were honored for excellence by the Maine Press Association in its annual juried competition. The Sentinel and the KJ placed second and third,
respectively, in the general excellence competition behind the Portland Press Herald.
The Central Maine Morning Sentinel debuted March 2, 1904, as the Waterville Morning Sentinel, a daily newspaper with a press run of 2,500. The original staff of the Sentinel included a mix of respected local politicians and seasoned newspapermen.
Cyrus Davis, the principal owner and founder of the Sentinel, was a prominent city Democrat, who was running for re-election as mayor. Charles F. Johnson, president of the Waterville Sentinel Publishing Co., would later become the first Democratic U.S. senator from Maine since Hannibal Hamlin. L. Eugene Thayer was the newspaper's first business manager, and would also become mayor of the city. Managing Editor Thomas F. Murphy was known statewide as a fearless, experienced newspaper-industry veteran. The first issue, released on Thursday, March 3, 1904, featured eight pages of local and national news, sports and fashion, along with advertisements for local businesses, such as the Redington Funeral Home and Atherton Furniture Co.
Front-page headlines trumpeted the likelihood of a conflict between France and England, and the collapse of a skyscraper in New York. Locally, the big news was the meeting of the Eastern Maine Horse Breeders' Association, highlighted by a "cavalcade of driving horses" on Silver Street, which the paper called "the city's famous speedway."
After a year of publication, the newspaper's managers increased the run to 3,500 copies and decreased the price by 1 cent - to 2 cents per copy. As time went by, the newsroom on Common Street grew from a humble, three-desk office to a bustling operation. In 1905, Davis ordered construction of the current building on Silver Street.
As times changed, so did ownership of the company. In 1911, after some financial difficulties, Davis gave control to the Sentinel to bond holders. In 1917, the company was acquired by the Robinson Land Co., and began to build back to financial stability.
In 1921, Guy P. Gannett, owner of the Portland Evening Express, Press Herald and Sunday Telegram, and the Kennebec Journal, purchased the Waterville Morning Sentinel. Under the control of Gannett, who was known for his fiercely evenhanded treatment of the news, the paper took on a less politically partisan slant.
Today
In 1998, Gannett's family sold Central Maine Newspapers, which comprises the Central Maine Morning Sentinel and the Kennebec Journal, as well as the Portland newspapers to Blethen Maine Newspapers. The Blethen family owns a controlling interest in the Seattle Times.