The Green Bay News-Chronicle (originally known as the Green Bay Daily News) was a daily newspaper published in Green Bay, Wisconsin from 1972 to 2005. The paper was owned and operated by Denmark, Wisconsin-based Brown County Publishing Company during much of its existence, and competed with the larger and more established Green Bay Press-Gazette. The Gannett newspaper chain, the Press-Gazette's parent company, owned the News-Chronicle during its last year of existence.
History
Early years
The News-Chronicle launched on November 13, 1972, as The Green Bay Daily News. The International Typographical Union had gone on strike against the Press-Gazette, unhappy with the hot-lead-to-computer typeset changeover and other new technologies that the Press-Gazette and other newspapers were acquiring at that time, which the union feared would cost its membership their jobs. The Daily News was formed to bring in money for the strikers and to support their cause.
From 1972 to 1976, the Daily News lost money in its head-to-head competition with the Press-Gazette. During the Daily News' first year, both newspapers were distributed in the afternoon. Shortly after beginning its second year of publication, the Daily News switched to a morning edition, allowing it to print the latest news and sports, including late games, several hours before the afternoon Press-Gazette. The smaller Daily News, with a circulation of roughly 12,000, competed against the larger Press-Gazette on several fronts, including breaking news on a John Doe investigation, breaking news on the National Football League Players Association strike against the NFL, and improved coverage of stock car racing, high school and college sports, and the Green Bay Bobcats hockey team. Wealthy local businessman Victor McCormick, who had a personal dislike for the Press-Gazette, became a major investor in the Daily News and remained an active voice in its operations until a 1976 heart attack forced him to end his financial support.
Frank Wood Takes Over
With the Daily News on the verge of bankruptcy and owing one of their creditors enough money to have them pull the plug, that creditor—Brown County Publishing Co., publisher of several weekly publications in Northeast Wisconsin and the Daily News''' printer—agreed to buy the Daily News. The company's owner, Frank A. Wood, made the purchase believing that the Green Bay community could benefit from two daily newspapers.
Wood's first major change to the paper had already taken place three years earlier, when the Daily News moved from afternoon to morning publication. After the purchase, the paper was rechristened the Green Bay News-Chronicle (the hyphenated name referring to Wood's weekly paper, the Brown County Chronicle). Wood also revamped the paper from broadsheet to a tabloid format, which made it easier to read at the breakfast table. After purchasing the paper, he also started to grow a beard and vowed not to shave until the paper had a break-even month. It took 21 months and a 13-inch beard before the News-Chronicle turned a $125.81 profit in November 1977.
Wood brought editorial cartoonist Lyle Lahey over from the weekly Chronicle to the daily News-Chronicle. Lahey and his cartoons were a prominent feature of the News-Chronicle's Opinion section until the paper's closing. The Opinion section also featured a lively array of local columnists with varying viewpoints: Curt Andersen, Ray Barrington, Warren Bluhm, Michelle Kennedy, Bill LuMaye, Yvonne Metivier and Sid Vineburg.
The News-Chronicle gained a niche audience with its local sports coverage, including reporting on the sport of bowling. Wood decided to market subscriptions to the local bowling community, promising that their sport would receive better and more prominent coverage in the News-Chronicle. The move paid off with a substantial increase in subscriptions from area bowlers, as well as the paper earning several awards from bowling organizations for its in-depth coverage of the sport.
The battle with Gannett
By the mid-1980s, the paper had just started to make an occasional profit when Gannett, which had bought the Press-Gazette in 1980, started to make life difficult for the News-Chronicle, which at the time had a circulation of 15,000 compared to the Press-Gazette's 100,000. By virtue of its worldwide presence, Gannett could afford to sell its advertising at a much lower price, thus to stifling or killing competing papers such as the News-Chronicle.
