Fort Wayne News Sentinel

The News-Sentinel

The 2007-04-03 front page of The News-Sentinel
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	Ogden Newspapers Inc.
Publisher	Michael J. Christman
Editor	Kerry Hubartt
Founded	1833 (as The Sentinel)
Headquarters	600 West Main Street Fort Wayne, Indiana
Website	FortWayne.com

The News-Sentinel is a daily newspaper based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The afternoon News-Sentinel is politically independent.

The News-Sentinel traces its origins to 1833, when The Sentinel was established as a weekly paper. The Sentinel was owned for a year and half in 1878-79 by Fort Wayne native William Rockhill Nelson who went on to found and make his fortune with The Kansas City Star. In 1918, The Sentinel merged with another local paper, The Fort Wayne Daily News, to form The News-Sentinel.

In 1932, Helene Foellinger joined her father's newspaper, The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, as a reporter, feature writer and – after convincing her father of the need – the newspaper's first women's editor. She was a new college graduate, but she studied mathematics, not journalism. In 1935, her father named her to the board of directors, expecting her to advance into his shoes when he retired – but in October 1936, he died unexpectedly. She became the youngest publisher of a major daily newspaper in the United States, as well as one of the few females in that position. She was up to the challenge, though, increasing circulation about 20% – from 56,700 to 67,800 – in just five years.

Ernest "Ernie" Williams, a reporter early in Helene Foellinger's reign, became editor, and a number of talented reporters from The News-Sentinel went on to positions on newspapers in larger cities and in broadcast journalism.

In 1950, Foellinger formed a joint operating agreement with the rival morning newspaper, The Journal Gazette. Each newspaper is separately managed and has separate editorial staffs, but Fort Wayne Newspapers provides advertising sales, circulation, and printing services used by both newspapers, and in 1958, built a new printing plant with offices for both newspapers. On the strength of The News-Sentinel, they ended up with a 55% share of Fort Wayne Newspapers, and Foellinger served as president.

In 1983, the The News-Sentinel was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for "its courageous and resourceful coverage of a devastating flood in March 1982". It was also honoured in 1992 as the Blue Ribbon Newspaper of the Year by the Hoosier State Press Association.

Helene Foellinger was 70, and there was no family member poised to take over The News-Sentinel, in 1980, when she sold News Publishing, along with the 55% share of Fort Wayne Newspapers, to Knight-Ridder in 1980.