During the first three phases of the grant, running from July 2008 through August 2015, regional advisory board members were responsible for consulting with representatives from their regions to compile Top 5 Lists of titles that should be considered for digitization. This page documents the selection process for Region 3 (northeast Ohio).
About
Counties (County Seats)
- Cuyahoga (Cleveland)
- Lake (Painesville)
- Lorain (Elyria)
- Medina (Medina)
- Summit (Akron)
Digitized Newspapers
Click the links below to learn more about each title/title family and for links to access the digital edition on Chronicling America.
- Akron Daily Democrat (Akron, Summit County), 1899-1902
- Cleveland Leader series (Cleveland, Cuyahoga County), 1858-1866
- Medina Sentinel (Medina, Medina County), 1914-1921
- Painesville Journal series (Painesville, Lake County), 1871-1880
- Toiler (Cleveland, Cuyahoga County), 1920-1921
- Wellington Enterprise series (Wellington, Lorain County), 1889-1899
2012-2014 Grant Cycle
Top 5 List
- Painesville Telegraph (Painesville, Lake County), 1836-1846
- Lorain Daily News (Lorain, Lorain County), 1903-1917
- Cleveland Advocate (Cleveland, Cuyahoga County), 1915-1920
- Catholic Universe (Cleveland, Cuyahoga County), 1874-1922
- Wellington Enterprise (Wellington, Lorain County), 1867-1922
2010-2012 Grant Cycle
Top 5 List
- Cleveland Leader (Cleveland, Cuyahoga County), 1860-1880: edited by Edwin Cowles; Cleveland’s “paper of record” in the Civil War era; represented the Republican Party’s radical wing
- Cleveland Herald (Cleveland, Cuyahoga County), 1860-1880: Cleveland’s “paper of record” until about 1860; Whig, then Republican in politics; good business coverage
- Painesville Telegraph (Painesville, Lake County), 1860-1880: first newspaper in Lake County; anti-slavery; Republican; county seat paper in largely rural county
- Lorain County News (Oberlin, Lorain County), 1860-1873: principal newspaper for Oberlin, likely to be a source of radical anti-slavery sentiment; Lorain County is primarily agricultural; Oberlin is the seat of an influential college (first to admit African-Americans and women on co-educational basis)
- Medina Gazette (Medina, Medina County), 1859-1880: principle newspaper in Medina County during Civil War; Republican/Union in political orientation; primarily rural coverage
2008-2010 Grant Cycle
Selection Committee
- David Bernatowicz (Cuyahoga County)
- John J. Grabowski (Cuyahoga County)
- Leo Jeffres (Cuyahoga County)
- Chris Krosel (Cuyahoga County)
- John Vacha (Cuyahoga County)
- Carl Engle (Lake County)
- Sally Malone (Lake County)
- Valerie Smith (Lorain County)
- Victor Fleischer (Summit County)
- Leianne Heppner (Summit County)
- Judy James (Summit County)
- Joanne O’Dell (Summit County)
Top 5 List
- Cleveland Press (Cleveland, Cuyahoga County), 1901-1909: for many years, Cleveland and Ohio’s major newspaper with considerable strength under editor Louis B. Seltzer; flagship of Scripps Howard chain; covered northeast Ohio; big player in electing Ohio governors; community-oriented, paying close attention to Cleveland’s ethnic communities; documents Cleveland mayor Tom L. Johnson’s administration of Progressives; no longer published
- Akron Daily Democrat (Akron, Summit County), 1899-1900: key industries began in this time period; parallels Akron Beacon Journal and offers contrasting viewpoint; major publication in area
- Catholic Universe (Cleveland, Cuyahoga County), 1900-1910: pioneer woman journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Ann O’Hara McCormick began her career with this paper; only Catholic voice for much of northern Ohio over toward Indiana; Irish-Catholic
- Berea Advertiser/Enterprise (Berea, Cuyahoga County), 1889-1955: important to community researchers and genealogists for the grass-roots level view of daily life it gives, unlike the urban dailies; local community paper; metropolitan area of Cleveland; alternative to big-city journalism, more intimate reflection of an Ohio community
Notes on Selection Process
- Major urban dailies too large to digitize in entirety under scope of this grant and are being digitized by commercial vendors anyway
- Attention should be paid to small community weeklies, special interest papers (e.g. labor papers) and ethnic newspapers written in English, which are unlikely to be digitized by vendors any time soon
- Weekly papers better represent the minority voices of the community and deal in news unlikely to be covered by the dailies
- Having two versions of the dailies, even if one is freely available (but only in portions), is less desirable than having more papers digitized and more viewpoints available.