Type Daily newspaper Publisher Rob Devincenzi Founded March 23, 1861 | Format Broadsheet Editor Robert Sterling | |
Owner(s) MediaNews Group, et al. | ||
The Marin Independent Journal is the main newspaper of Marin County, California. The paper is owned by California Newspapers Partnership which is in turn mostly owned by MediaNews Group.
Contents
History
The Independent Journal was formed from the merger of the Marin Journal and the San Rafael Daily Independent in 1948. The weekly Journal, one of the state's oldest newspapers, had been established in 1861 as the Marin County Journal. The Journal was published in San Rafael on Saturdays by Jerome A. Barney. The Independent had been started by Harry Granice in 1900 as the weekly San Rafael Independent, which became a daily by 1903 under the management of his daughter, Celeste Granice Murphy. The merged paper was originally called the San Rafael Independent-Journal.
Gannett acquired the paper from the Brown family in 1980. MediaNews Group acquired the paper from Gannett in 2000.
The "hot-tubber" incident
In 2002, former President George H. W. Bush described "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh as "some misguided Marin County hot-tubber." His comment prompted criticism among readers of the Marin Independent Journal, until Bush sent the paper a letter of apology:
Call off the dogs, please. I surrender...I apologize. I am chastened and will never use 'hot tub' and 'Marin county' in the same sentence again.Awards
Staff of the Marin Independent Journal have won the following recent awards:
2008 California Newspaper Publishers Association awards
General Excellence
General Award - First place for 25,001 to 75,000 circulation category.Freedom of Information
General Award - First place for Freedom of Information for battling in court for several years to get Marin County government to release county payroll information. The payroll data is available in a database at http://www.marinij.com/dataEditorial Pages
Brad Breithaupt - First placeEditorial Cartoon
George Russell - First place for cartoon about the Marin County supervisors and Marin Clean EnergySports Story
Dave Albee - Second place for story about a Redwood High School player battling cancerSports Photo
Alan Dep - Second place for an image featuring Mill Valley and Tiburon Little League all-stars reacting to a call at third base during a semi-finals game2007 Associated Press News Executives Council awards
Sports Writing
Ryan Metcalfe - First place for the article Parent TrapFeature Writing
Rick Polito - First place for the article Running Death ValleyGraphics
Josh Ruthnick - First place for the article Tour of California'Spot News Coverage
General Award - Second place for the article Powerful PunchPrices
The Marin Independent Journal prices are: 75ยข daily, $1.25 Sunday.