The Daily & Sunday Star is a newspaper published in Hammond, Louisiana, by the Daily Star Publishing Company, located at 725 South Morrison Boulevard, ZIP 70403-5401. As of 2015 the publisher is Bailey Dabney, the executive editor is Lil Mirando, the sports editor is J.D. Summerlin. The advertising director is Michelle Gallo. The circulation director is William Calcutt. The newspaper belongs to the Associated Press, the Louisiana Press Association, and the Hammond Chamber of Commerce. The newspaper focuses on happenings in Tangipahoa Parish, where Hammond is located, and in Livingston Parish and Saint Helena Parish, the three civil parishes (counties in other states) of its home-delivery circulation area.
Contents
History
The Daily Star began on November 12, 1959, as The Hammond Press, which on December 23 of the same year retitled itself The Hammond Item. The Daily & Sunday Star is the sole daily newspaper published in Hammond (as of 2011). Its Sunday edition is The Sunday Star; The Daily Star is issued on five weekdays (Tuesday through Saturday, as of 2011).
In 2007, The Daily Star changed from being an afternoon newspaper to publishing in the morning, thereby within its three-parish circulation area competing head-to-head with The Advocate (Baton Rouge) and The Times-Picayune (New Orleans). The Daily Star has held its own by nuancing to this competitive environment in Louisiana's fastest-growing region. As of 2013, it had a paid circulation above 12 thousand, free (shopping) circulation of 35 thousand, and prodigious advertising, especially in the Thursday and Sunday editions. The Sunday Star circulates USA Weekend and includes a full comics section.
Over the years The Daily Star has been owned by various media corporations. In 2013 it was owned by Paxton Media Group, headquartered in Kentucky.
Role in Hurricane Katrina news
In 2005, during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the Star (as it is often called locally) continued operation via emergency measures and skipped paper publication on just one day — Tuesday August 30 - the only date since 1959 that the Star had not published as scheduled. In the meantime, even on that Tuesday as during the preceding weekend, the Star staff was at work and, with the public power outage, used generators and laptop computers to maintain the newspaper's web site; issues for August 31 and September 1 and 2 were printed in Denham Springs. During and after the storm the Star facilities in Hammond served as the temporary operations center for the Associated Press New Orleans bureau and as the temporary reporting-base for several newspapers from around the country in covering the New Orleans situation. With just one day of interrupted publication on paper, the Star published accounts of the hurricane and its aftermath, including controversies related to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Opinion page
The Daily Star carries various national, state, and local columns. The Star's editorial policy is politically non-aligned, but occasionally since 1986 the newspaper has endorsed candidates. A major feature of The Daily Star is its letters to the editor, which are often vigorous about local or state issues and provide unique grassroots commentary.