The News-Sentinel, Allen County’s oldest continuously operating business, celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2008.
The first edition of The Sentinel was published July 6, 1833. It was established as a weekly paper and did not see much change until 1918, when it merged with another local paper, The Fort Wayne Daily News, to become The News-Sentinel, an afternoon paper.
Two years later, in 1920, Oscar Foellinger became the owner and publisher. He ran the paper until his death in 1936, after which his daughter, Helene, took over, becoming the youngest publisher in the United States.
In 1950, Helene Foellinger formed a joint-operating agreement with rival morning newspaper The Journal Gazette. This agreement entitled both papers to share advertising sales, circulation and printing services, but kept each newspaper separately managed with different editorial staffs. That arrangement continues today under the business name Fort Wayne Newspapers.
A new building, with a new printing press and offices for both papers, was put up in 1958 at its present location of 600 W. Main St.
Knight-Ridder Newspapers purchased The News-Sentinel in 1980. In 1983, the newspaper received a Pulitzer Prize for best local coverage for its reporting of the flood of 1982.
Before going out of business, Knight-Ridder sold The News-Sentinel and its other newspaper properties to McClatchy Newspapers in 2006. McClatchy quickly sold The News-Sentinel to Ogden Newspapers of Wheeling, W. Va., that same year and named Michael J. Christman publisher of The News-Sentinel and CEO of Fort Wayne Newspapers.
In 2007, Fort Wayne Newspapers completed a building to house a new printing press – a $35 million project. The press, which can print 90,000 papers an hour, is one of the fastest in the country.
