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The Nashville Banner was a daily newspaper of Nashville, Tennessee which ceased publication in 1998. It was
long a voice of conservative and many would say even reactionary views at
times, in stark contrast to its "progressive" morning counterpart, The
Tennessean, although these views were greatly moderated in the paper's twilight years.
The Banner began as the Nashville Republican Banner and although it was to drop the first word of
the title early in its existence, it never quite did so in its editorial practice. It was begun as a voice for the railroads and
other interests in comparison with other area papers of the time which tended to take the viewpoint of workers and unions. It was long controlled by Nashville's influential Stahlman family.
The Banner was an evening paper, which at one time published as many as five editions (first, second, market
final, sports final, and Sunset Final), although these were later consolidated into
three editions, and eventually, two. For many years it was in a superior financial condition to its competitors, and in fact,
when the rival Tennessean went bankrupt and almost had to cease publication, the Banner assisted in its
purchase by the Evans family, who saved it. The Tennesseean and the Banner entered into what
was the first joint operating agreement in the
U.S. in 1937. Under this agreement, which became a common model for many other cities over
the next half-century, the papers maintained editorial independence and remained separate as news-gathering organizations.
However, they were printed on the same presses, distributed by a common agent, and had a consolidated classified advertising department. They were fierce competitors
in the realm of news and ideas, but no longer business competitors in the truest sense.
This arrangement stood both papers in good stead for many years. However, the Banner began to suffer in the
post-World War II era from the slow loss of readership that became common
to most U.S. evening papers, which was largely attributed to the rise of television. In the early 1970's the Stahlmans sold the
Banner to the Gannett Co. Gannett published it for several years, but in
1979 announced that it was selling the Banner back to local owners and assuming
publication of the Tennessean.
Although it took almost twenty years, this was the death knell for the Banner. It was now clearly inferior in
resources to its morning counterpart, and its circulation continued to shrink. In the 1980s Gannett insisted on renegotiation of the joint operating agreement to its benefit, and the Banner had
little choice but to comply. Another reason for the weakness of the Banner was its lack of a Sunday edition comparable
to the Tennessean's, which it had given up in the formation of the joint operating agreement. It had always published on a
six-day schedule, and as weekday papers, especially evening weekday papers, continued to decline, it did not have this profit
center to draw upon. The Banner switched its Saturday edition for a while to a single, morning edition in direct
competition with the Tennesseean, then announced that it was terminating its Saturday edition entirely.
During this time, the Banner began to take far more moderate postions on issues on its editorial pages, although it
generally remained more conservative than the Tennessean in most areas. It was in the contradictory situation of
probably becoming more-respected by people, especially those in the journalism community, at the same time that it was becoming
less-read. The end occurred when the Gannett Co. made the publishers of the Banner a large offer to terminate the joint
operating agreement. The offer was more than any profit that could have probably been made by the continued publication of the
Banner, so it ceased to exist, with a small portion of its staff and a few of its most popular features being absobed by
the Tennessean. Interestingly, this was not considered to be an antitrust violation, but when Gannet attempted to do the same thing with its Honolulu Advertiser and the evening paper in that joint operating agreement, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, it was prosecuted as such.
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