Readers of The Weekly View are continuing an Indianapolis newspaper tradition that began two centuries ago. The View is one of the more recent weekly publications to bring news and other items of local interest to a specialized readership.
Most of the early Indianapolis newspapers were dependent on the mail for news beyond Marion County, and until the coming of the telegraph these papers published weekly. After the Daily Indiana State Journal began publishing a daily paper in the early 1850s, The Locomotive (1845-1860) continued to provide Indianapolis readers with weekly local news and “street gossip.” Also at this time Julius Boetticher, an immigrant from Saxony, established the first German language newspaper in the city, Indiana Volksblatt (1848-1876). Aligned with the Democratic Party, the paper published weekly until Boetticher’s death in 1875 when it then merged with the weekly Wochentlicher Telegraph (1865-1875) becoming Indiana Volksblatt und Telegraph which ceased circulation in 1907.
The Daily State Sentinel introduced the Indiana State Sentinel, a weekly edition, on the eve of the Civil War. Both papers were outspoken critics of President Lincoln’ conduct of the war and Governor Morton’s support of the war effort. The involvement of the paper’s editor in the pro-South Copperhead conspiracy towards the end of the war contributed to the decline of the Sentinel. A decade later, The Indiana State Sentinel was re-introduced and enjoyed a strong weekly readership among Hoosier farmers into the mid-nineties.
Enos B. Reed was editor of the fledgling Indiana Journal of Commerce, a weekly business finance, and trade newspaper, when he saw “there was a field for a weekly paper” and left in the fall of 1870 to launch The People, “a sensational paper, devoted to chronicling the evil conditions of the city.” After over two decades of publishing the paper, illness forced Reed to sell The People to James B. Wilson who embellished sensational news coverage. After printing grand jury “details of a particularly disgusting state of morals…found to exist among a number of young people of both sexes in a part of the city,” with illustrations of some of the orgies, Wilson was charged and convicted of “sending obscene matter through the mails.” Sentenced to eighteen months in prison, he was pardoned by President Willliam McKinley. However, when Wilson continued publishing The People “with a different policy,” the readership declined and “it was allowed to drift out of print.”
The Indianapolis Leader, the city’s first Black newspaper, made its debut in August 1879 joining fifteen other weekly newspapers in the city. Published by Bagby & Co under the motto “An Equal Chance and Fair Play,” James D. Bagby was the editor of this Republican weekly. The Indianapolis Journal noted, “The Leader makes a very creditable appearance, its editorials are well written and its local news fresh and well presented.” One member of The Leader reportorial staff, Edward E. Cooper who was “said to have been the originator of illustrated journalism,” left the paper in 1883 and founded The Colored World, later known as The Indianapolis World. The paper initially supported the Republican Party, but later supported the Willliam Jennings Bryan faction of the Democratic Party. While The Leader ceased publication in 1891, The World had a longer life and continued publishing until 1932.
Other weekly journals provided news coverage of interest to the Indianapolis Black community. The Freeman began publishing in 1884 as a national newspaper and with a staff of Black artists the newspaper was “the only illustrated colored journal” depicting Blackness with illustration captions “as seen by the artist.” In its early years, The Freeman backed Democratic candidates, but after the weekly was sold to influential Black Republican George L. Knox in 1892 its allegiance shifted to the Republican Party where it remained until the 1920s when the newspaper once again aligned with the Democratic Party due to the control the Ku Klux Klan had over the Indiana Republican Party. In January 1926, Knox filed for voluntary bankruptcy, a receiver was appointed, and The Freeman ceased publication.
For 129 years The Indianapolis Recorder, founded as a church bulletin called The Directory by George P. Stewart and Will H. Porter in 1895 and evolving four years later under Stewart’s leadership as “A Negro Newspaper Devoted to the Best Interest of the Colored People of Indiana,” has reported the news of everyday life in Black communities from Indianapolis to Evansville to Gary and told readers of racist practices. The Recorder published columns by local civil rights advocate Andrew W. Ramsey (“Voice from the Gallery,” 1947-1973) and local broadcast journalist Amos Brown (“Just Tellin’ It,” 1994-2015).
John D. Howard, former advertising manager for The Recorder, began publishing The Indianapolis Ledger in 1913. Devoted to the interest of the Black community, the weekly initially supported the Democratic Party until Howard witnessed police slugging a Black man and the city administration refused to reprimand the officers. After Howard died in 1920, The Ledger continued until 1925. Decades later, Opal Less Tandy, a former reporter and editorial writer for The Recorder, acquired The Hoosier Herald (est. 1949) in 1957, changing the name to The Indiana Herald in 1960. He published the weekly until his death in 1983 when his widow, Mary B. Tandy, became sole proprietor and publisher of The Herald.
In the 1890s weeklies began to appear in the Indianapolis suburbs. The Brightwood News, The Haughville Mirror, The Irvington News, and The West Indianapolis Herald published for a brief time. Items of interest to Irvington residents later appeared in The Irvingtonian (1927-1930) and The Irvington Review (1935-1942). Newspapers serving larger regional areas of Marion County began in 1915 with The West Side Messenger and The North Side Topics (est. 1922), and later The Perry Township Weekly (est. 1938), The Spotlight (est. 1939), The Eastside Herald (est. 1935), and The Eastern Sun (est. 1953).
Except for the Franklin Township Informer (est. 1971) and The Broad Ripple Gazette (2004-2019), most of the weeklies serving Marion County suburban neighborhoods were acquired in 2005 by The Indianapolis Star (Gannett Co, Inc). When The Star ceased publishing these newspapers four years later, former staff started The Weekly View and The Southsider Voice.
The Indianapolis newspapers have been microfilmed and are available for viewing at the Indiana State Library. Selected papers have also been digitized and can be read at Hoosier State Chronicles, https://newspapers.library.in.gov/.
