Williamsport Sun-Gazette

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The Williamsport Sun-Gazette newspaper's history.

The newspaper now known as the Williamsport Sun-Gazette was founded in 1801 as The Lycoming Gazette. This nation was only 25 years old at the time and there were only 131 residents in Williamsport. The newspaper was started in a building in what is now the vicinity of Penn Street and Washington Blvd. The Gazette name has been on the nameplate and masthead of a newspaper in Williamsport continuously since that time. The Sun Gazette is the oldest continuously operating enterprise in the West Branch Valley.

At 210 years old, The Sun-Gazette is now the 12th oldest newspaper in America and the 4th oldest in Pennsylvania (both rankings are from around 1990 and may have since changed). More than 32 other newspapers have operated and closed in the Williamsport area since 1801.

The Lycoming Gazette was a weekly paper from 1801 until 1867, when it was first published as a daily newspaper. The Lycoming Gazette then purchased the West Branch Bulletin, which was founded in 1860, and merged in 1869 to become the Gazette and Bulletin, which was a daily morning newspaper.

A rival newspaper, The Williamsport Sun was created and printed for the first time on July 8, 1870 and was published in the afternoon.

In 1955, the morning Gazette & Bulletin and the afternoon Williamsport Sun were consolidated and became the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, the area’s afternoon newspaper.

On July 1, 1990, the family owned Sun-Gazette was acquired by another family owned newspaper group; Ogden Newspapers. Ogden Newspapers operates more than 40 newspapers through the United States including the East Lycoming Shopper & News and the Muncy Luminary, in Lycoming County.

In January 1991, the Sun-Gazette published the first Sunday edition and evolved into a 7 day a week publication, including holidays.

On August 9, 1999, 130 years after the merger of the Lycoming Gazette and the West Branch Bulletin, the Sun-Gazette returned to the morning edition format.

The Sun-Gazette has won numerous advertising, creative and editorial awards over the past few years.

The Williamsport Sun-Gazette is also know for its coverage of Pennsylvania State Government.

The Williamsport Sun-Gazette is generally a conservative leaning newspaper, reflecting the views of the majority of Lycoming County. However they have been very fair to all viewpoints.

The Williamsport Sun-Gazette strives for editorial equality and excellence in covering all local news and local sports.

In addition, the Sun-Gazette provides local value to readers and advertisers who depend on over Sixty-Five Thousand daily and Seventy-Five Thousand Sunday readers for coupons, customers and clients.

In addition to the strong readership of the printed Sun-Gazette, the online Sun Gazette now attracts over 136,000 unique visitors and nearly 1.9 million page views per month. This averages out to approximately Fifty-Six Thousand additional online readers per day. More people are reading Sun-Gazette products today than at any other time in history, and that number is still growing.

The Sun-Gazette is also an important partner to our community, generously donating financial and advertising space support to dozens of civic, school and service organizations.

It covers news in neighboring counties to some extent as well (especially Clinton County and Sullivan County). It also covers Penn State University Football extensively. There are over 24 high schools covered in local sports.

As of 1/1/2011, the daily circulation of the Sun-Gazette was listed as 24,000 daily Monday-Saturday with a Sunday circulation of 30,000.