Newark Leader

Newark Leader (Newark, Licking County, Ohio) 1917-1946 [LCCN: sn88078775]
Digital Edition: November 24, 1917 – November 5, 1926; January 4, 1940 – December 31, 1942


The Newark Leader began on November 24, 1917, under the leadership of the Newark Trades and Labor Assembly and publisher Julius Juch. Juch was a German immigrant who ran the German-language newspaper the Newark Express, which ended in October that same year. It published six columns weekly on Saturdays, until at some point shifting to Thursdays with seven columns.

The Newark Leader was not attached to any specific union, but rather to the labor movement in general. In its inaugural issue, it claimed to “stand for loyalty, civic betterment, for honesty, efficiency and probity, in the individual, and especially for those who serve the public.” To those ends, the Newark Leader focused on conveying union news to members in a timely fashion by partnering with Local Union secretaries for updates. It also had an interest in uplifting Newark citizens with suggestions ranged from thrifty spending tips to Do-It-Yourself projects and recipes. In an effort to convince people to join a union, the paper often included explanations of how unions benefited both laborers and the economy at large. Although the Newark Ledger resolved to leave political news and local personals to the daily newspapers of the area, it actively criticized price gouging and non-local business. It advertised strictly local businesses that sold union label goods. The Newark Leader adopted a Democratic stance in 1928.

By the 1940s, the Newark Leader began to include items of more social interest. Although it still reported on items of national importance to the labor movement, personal news became more of a prominent feature. Social visits and accomplishments could be commonly found, but marriages, divorces, and births were included with only bare minimum details under the “Statistical Roundup” section. It occasionally had serial fiction chapters or other light entertainment. The advertising stayed local, and editorials still criticized spending money outside the community, condemning popular delivery services like mail-order houses. For unknown reasons, the Newark Leader appeared to cease publication in 1946.


Researched and written by Jen Cabiya