The the Pulliam family owners (relatives of Dan Quayle) sold it to Gannett.
Since then, it has deteriorated both in quality and content. I cancelled my subscription when they posted a front-page article (complete with photos of each of the justices) saying that the 2000 eection decision was 5-4. It totally left out the 7-2 decision. When I called about it and spoke to the managing editor, the excuse was that the editor on duty didn't get the full story from the wire services until after the deadline. Since I, as an average housewife, knew the decision before the deadline, I told the guy that I knew he was lying, and I cancelled.
The paper since then has made a policy of propping up the democrat mayor with fluff stories, attacking the Republican governor at every opportunity, and undermining the traditional social structure and religious fabric of our city.
Examples:
They quit running the Easter Story and the Christmas Story on the front page, something they had done for over 75 years.
The only Jewish stories are about cooking. Religious observance is invisible.
Mother's Day? Run a feature story about two lesbians who have a child conceived by artificial insemnation.
Father's Day? Run a story about two gay men raising a boy.
Memorial Day? Run a story about disgruntled Veterans.
Veterans Day? Run a story about disgruntled veterans.
Fourth of July? Run a story about Jefferson's mistress.
Thanksgiving? Run a story about how there are so many hungry people in the city.
See how this goes? Anything that brings joy, positive thoughts, or patriotic feeling is countered with a "life sucks" story. Very demoralizing, and they can't understand why their subscription numbers are dropping.
I will bet cash money that the subscriptions would have stayed on track if Gannett hadn't bought the paper.
My grandad was a pressman for that paper for 50 years, and my sister and brother both worked for it several years ago. Heck, I even was a teen correspondent for their now-defunct high school edition. I take this personally, you see.
It's a real disgrace, and a detriment to our city.
That's SOP for Gannett. They buy newspapers in small- to medium-sized cities (almost always making sure it's the only newspaper in town) and strip them to the bone, turning them into cash cows for the company. All major editorial decisions come out of Gannett's headquarters in Washington, which is why you see such overtly liberal coverage even in small towns where the readership have no interest in it: They have to follow the orders from DC, or they get fired, period. And since each of the papers has a monopoly, it doesn't matter whether or not they cut quality by 75%; after all, what are the readers going to do, cancel?
Admittedly, from a business point of view, it's been a brilliant strategy ... at least until the Internet finally reached most households. Now it's not working so well any more, and there's not a single employee anywhere in the entire Gannett organization with a clue how to fix things, because all the smart people have been laid off.
I nominate The Indianapolis Star for the category of "Most Rapid Deterioration." Ten years ago the paper was reliably conservative in its editorial position, and the news was fairly unbiased.
The the Pulliam family owners (relatives of Dan Quayle) sold it to Gannett.
The same thing happened to the Star's sister paper, The Arizona Republic (Repulsive)...turned it into a typo- filled, whiny, left-leaning rag.
Nice use of contrasts.