But 120 years later, his newspaper survives as a daily part of Dayton life. And it became the cornerstone of a multi-billion-dollar international corporation that Cox’s family still operates.
Credit: Dayton Daily News Archive
Credit: Dayton Daily News Archive
Cox renamed his new acquisition the Dayton Daily News on Aug. 22, 1898, and launched a company that focused on three essential components of his journalistic mission:
• Advocate relentlessly for Dayton and its residents
• Shed light on the actions of powerful interests – whether government or private industry — and how they impact this community
• Give our customers our best every day
This mission of service differentiated the Dayton Daily News and allowed it to thrive.
As the region grew – with aviation, paper manufacturing, agriculture, information technology, automotive and national defense as the foundation of the local economy – the Dayton Daily News covered the journey.
In the newsroom, generations of journalists have worked by rules that are as valid in the digital era as when newsprint was brought into the city by canal barge: Get out there. Go see for yourself. If you don’t know the answer, ask. Knock on the door. Ask the question again. Keep digging. Get it right.
Our advertising team has been driven by the same instincts: How do we help our clients grow by giving them access to the best audiences and information? How do we help them win by finding answers to their key business questions?
The story of the Dayton Daily News is also a mirror of the highs and lows of the Dayton region. Both stories have the same threads - early doubtful prospects, persistence, innovation, fantastic growth, challenges, adaptation, evolution, and constant, constant, constant effort.
Paging through past issues of the Dayton Daily News — available at libraries around the region, online and at a special collection managed by the Wright State University Libraries – gives a detailed, daily recollection of how our paper and our community have been intertwined.
In 1998 the Dayton Daily News won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for digging deep into problems with the way the Department of Defense provided health care to active duty service men and women and their families. The Pentagon stepped up in the wake of coverage and pledged to make improvements to the more than 600 hospitals and clinics it managed.
But the pages have also been filled with an uncountable number of small acts - chronicling Daytonians working, fighting, succeeding and grieving.
During the Vietnam War the paper ran “Letters to GIs” around the holidays - a list of dozens of mailing addresses to service men and women. The list was printed to encourage readers to write to these men and women at the holidays so they knew their service in the military was appreciated. “Take one or more of the names and addresses from today’s listing and send a card, a letter, a small package. It could do as much for you as it does for those who serve.”
The papers during World War II were produced with a dozen stories or more on the front pages every day. But the day war in the Pacific ended, the front page was filled instead with photos of euphoric Daytonians hugging. “Peace - Dayton Style”
Wars began and ended on our pages.
Floods came. Lives were lost. Healing began.
NCR started, grew, flourished, declined and left.
GM plants dotted the region. Strikes occurred. New lines were added. Gleaming cars rolled off busy production lines. Plants closed. And then - in some cases - reopened.
Desegregation. The 1960s. Suburbs boomed. The city evolved.
The Reds won. Pete Rose lost.
The Bengals made - and lost - two of the greatest Super Bowls in history.
Major institutions developed: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Wright State, the Schuster Center for the Performing Arts.
The University of Dayton men’s basketball team shocked the world - several times.
An Ohioan walked on the moon.
9/11 brought us to tears.
This summer we launched a team of journalists dedicated to getting to the bottom of three of the most persistent issues cited as holding our community back: the opioid epidemic, the quality of education provided by Dayton Public Schools and the need to ensure Dayton has the jobs of the future. This group is looking for answers, and a fantastic board of community contributors is giving them feedback all the way.
The stories of it all have been told in the pages of the Dayton Daily News, and it is work we are still proud to do. We tell these stories today in many different ways: in video, in podcasts, and across devices that fit in your hand and project on walls. But it does not matter whether the content is immersive or printed on paper - it’s the story that matters.
That’s why everyday thousands of people engage with our digital content. I hear from readers more often now with questions about our epaper than about our printed edition, which shows again how the governor’s product can evolve and adapt to stand the test of time. There is a quote from the governor on the walls that our employees pass by every day that says: We must never turn back the hands of the clock. We must go forward and not backward.
We break news when it happens, all day, online. Our staffs work in partnership with those of WHIO-TV and WHIO Radio so closely it is nearly impossible to tell where one starts and another stops. Then we print and deliver the most impactful investigations and articles of the day to doorsteps the next morning. It is an exciting, hard job that we love.
I am proud that The Dayton Daily News is still telling the stories of this community every day. It has been produced by Daytonians, for its readers for 120 years. And because of our steadfast commitment to serve, evolve and adapt, the Dayton Daily News will be here for many more.
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