Spokane Chronicle

The Spokesman-Review

The July 27, 2005 front page of The Spokesman-Review
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner(s)	Cowles Company
Publisher	William Stacey Cowles
Editor	Rob Curley
Founded	1894
Language	English
Headquarters	999 West Riverside Avenue Spokane, WA 99201 United States
Circulation	Daily: 76,291. Sunday: 95,939.
OCLC number	11102529
Website	spokesman.com

The Spokesman-Review is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Spokane, Washington, where it is the city's only daily publication. It has the third highest readership among daily newspapers in Washington, with most of its readership base in Eastern Washington.

The Spokesman-Review was formed from the merger of the Spokane Falls Review (1883–1894) and the Spokesman (1890–1893) in 1893 and first published under the present name on June 29, 1894. It later absorbed the competing afternoon paper, the Spokane Chronicle. The newspaper formerly published three editions, a metro edition covering Spokane and the outlying areas, a Spokane Valley edition and an Idaho edition covering northern Idaho. After a large downsizing of the newsroom staff in November 2007, the paper moved to a single zoned edition emphasizing localized "Voices" sections staffed primarily by non-union employees. The "Voices" section still caters to the three original edition, publishing a Valley "Voices," a North Spokane "Voices" and a South Spokane "Voices."

Cowles set the Chronicle on a course to be independent and The Spokesman-Review to support Republican Party causes. Time magazine related the papers' success gaining lowered rates for freight carried to the Northwest United States and an improved park system and that helped the region. Increasing its reputation for comprehensive local news and by opposing "gambling, liquor and prostitution," The Spokesman-Review gained popularity. The paper's opposition to building the Grand Coulee Dam was not quite so universally applauded, and when it opposed the New Deal and the Fair Deal, it so disturbed President of the United States Harry Truman that he declared the Spokesman-Review to be one of the "two worst" newspapers in the United States. The Scripps League's Press closed in 1939, making Cowles the only newspaper publisher in Spokane. Cowles created four weeklies, the Idaho Farmer, Washington Farmer, Oregon Farmer and Utah Farmer. Cowles died in 1946. When William H. Cowles Jr. succeeded his father as publisher, James Bracken received much more news and editorial control as managing editor.