146th Birthday September 2011 — The Newnan Times-Herald/MyConnection — 1B
A LOOK AT THE PAST, STEPPING INTO THE FUTURE
Times-Herald’s new digital edition offers advanced technology, search options By W. WINSTON SKINNER winston@newnan.com The Newnan Times-Herald has a rich and vibrant history, but the newspaper is also up to date when it co m e s to technology. To d ay, t h e n ews pa p e r ’s new digital edition is being rolled out. The digital edition will have a number of new and innovative features that will appeal to readers in Coweta County and in other places. It is accessed through the newspaper’s website at www.times-herald.com. Just click on the newspaper logo at the top right of the home page. Jo ey Howa rd , Ti m e s Herald classified advertising manager, was checking the
web s i te o f Th e Na s hv i l l e Te n n e ss e a n s o m e t i m e i n 2009 and was impressed with the digital edition there. The Times-Herald’s new digital edition is done in conjunction with Tecnavia P ress, Inc., the company that does o n l i n e e d i t i o n s fo r s u c h n ews pa p e rs as Th e Tennessean, USA Today and The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Founded in 1975, Tecnavia h a s o ff i ce s i n B u r n sv i l l e, Minnesota, and in Lugano, Sw i t ze rl a n d . Th e l eve l o f technology at Tecnavia is advanced. Looking through the digital edition online in one of the functions mimics the experience of “turning the pages” of the print newspaper. “It’s the closest thing we
In addition to the digital edition, The Times-Herald has added a new, updated photo gallery at www.times-herald.com. The photo service is handled through MyCapture, which is a division of Second Street in St. Louis, Mo. “It’s more pleasing to the eye visually — a more pleasing experience in looking for photos and albums,” said Times-Herald Classified Advertising Manager Joey Howard.
can give our readers to an actual experience of reading the paper digitally,” Howard said. Th e n ew s o f twa re a l s o offers various page view and text view options, and allows the viewer to enlarge the page for easier reading. “You can click on the story, and it will come up exactly as it looks in the newspaper,” Howard said. That function is a great one for people who want to clip something for a scrapbook. The reader can also choose to see the story in a plain text format. In addition, the digital edition will offer a voice reader function, which will read the s to r y i n s i x l a n g u a ge s — E n g l i s h , S pa n i s h , Fre n c h , Italian, German and Dutch. A search function is part of the digital edition. There is also an e-Notify function that may be activated to get an a uto m a te d m e ssa ge wh e n there is a story about a topic of interest. The Times-Herald also is available in e-book format. The digital edition can be accessed via a computer or mobile device — as well as on an Amazon Kindle, a Sony Reader, a Nook Reader and an iPhone/iPod. Jo n a t h a n Me lv i l l e, t h e newspaper’s IT coordinator, said that if the edition is not accessible by iPad by Sept. 9, it will be soon. “We’re working hard at it,” he said. Nao m i Ja c k s o n , Ti m e s Herald circulation director, said the digital edition will include everything produced by the newspaper staff. Such extras as USA Weekend, the Sunday color comics section and advertising inserts will n o t b e pa r t o f t h e o n l i n e product. “If you are a paid print edition subscriber, you will have a digital edition for free,” Jackson said. She said subscribers who do not already have them soon will get “a user name and password” to
Photo by Winston Skinner
Joey Howard, Times-Herald classified advertising manager, checks out the newspaper’s new digital edition.
access the digital edition. Colleen D. Mitchell, the newspaper’s sales and marketing director, pointed to the digital edition as one m o re fa ce t o f wh a t s u b scribers to the newspaper get. In addition to the print and digital editions 365 days a year, subscribers also get t h e Cowe t a L iv i n g g u i d e annually and six issues of Newnan-Coweta Magazine per year. “You’re getting a tremendous amount for your money. It ’s re a l ly a go o d d e a l ,” Jackson added. “We do have subscribers for the digital edition only,” Jackson said. She said most of them are former Coweta County residents who now live in other states but want
to keep up with what is happening in this area. In addition to the digital edition, the newspaper also has added a new, updated p h o to ga l l e r y. Th e p h o to s e r v i ce i s n ow h a n d l e d through MyCapture, which is a division of Second Street in St. Louis, Mo. “It’s more pleasing to the eye visually — a more pleasing experience in looking for photos and albums,” Howard said. M i tc h e l l n o te d t h e n ew photo gallery program also offe rs “new and diffe rent products” featuring images f ro m Th e Ti m e s - He ra l d . Su c h i te m s a s T- s h i r t s , mousepads, buttons, magnets, coffee mugs, aprons, playing cards, coasters and
C h r i s t m a s o r n a m e n t s a re available with any picture f ro m Th e Ti m e s - He ra l d ’s photo gallery collection. Howa rd n o te d that i n c l u d e s “ t h o u sa n d s o f u n p u b l i s h e d p i c t u re s ” a s well as those that appear in the newspaper. Recently, The Times-Herald was ranked seventh among MyCapture galleries — with 6,500-7,000 pageviews for two consecutive weeks. The new gallery page was launched in July. Photos from August 2007-June 2011 can be accessed through a link on the gallery page. For more information, contact the newspaper at our main number, 770-253-1576, and punch “0” to reach the front desk.
Newspaper’s history starts right after Civil War’s end By W. WINSTON SKINNER winston@newnan.com
The Newnan Herald had been born in the aftermath of one war and entered a new era as World War II came to a close. In October 1946, the Herald was acquired from MacNabb by Evan W. Thomasson and James J. Thomasson, publishers of the Newnan Times. The Newnan Times and The Newnan Herald were published separately for about a year after the Thomassons bought the Herald. The first issue of The Newnan Times-Herald was published on Dec. 24, 1947.
Coweta County’s local daily newspaper was formed through the combining of two older newspapers. The Newnan Herald was a Coweta institution for 70 years before The Newnan Times was established. The papers were competitors for a decade before they were combined. The Newnan Herald was founded by two attorneys, J.S. Bigby and J.C. Wootten, and the first issue came off the presses on Sept. 9, 1865 — exactly five months after the Civil War ended. The four-page weekly — the first paper started in Georgia after the Civil War — cost $3 per year and was published on Saturday. Soon after the first Herald hit the streets, Bigby — who became active in local politics — sold his interest in the paper to James A. Welch. Following the deaths of Welch and Wootten, the Herald was edited by A.B. Cates, a native of Tennessee and a Confederate veteran. Cates ran the Herald until late 1886 or early 1887 when the Herald consolidated with the Coweta Advertiser, which had been published by W.W. Wadsworth, a Methodist minister. After the merger of the Herald and Wadsworth’s jour-
nal, the newspaper became known as The Herald and Advertiser. James E. Brown, who later became known as Judge Brown after his appointment as a U.S. Commissioner, became editor. He served for four decades and was known for his insightful editorials. Brown was born in Marion County in 1854. Before coming to Newnan, he founded the Henry County Weekly in 1877. “Coweta County Chronicles” related that Brown served as editor there until 1886 when he came to Newnan as editor of the Advertiser, coming to the Herald and Advertiser after the merger. Brown married a Newnan woman, Kate Milner, in 1883. In 1912, Brown sold the Herald and Advertiser to Rhodes McPhail “after having guided its fortunes for nearly 25 years,” according to “Chronicles.” The sale did not last, however. “The Herald people wanted James E. Brown and James E. Brown wanted to return to his accustomed place — which he did with Ellis M. Carpenter as an assistant,” the county history reported. In 1915, the Herald and Advertiser absorbed another rival, the Newnan News, and the paper again became known as the Newnan Herald. “Chronicles” reported, “The owners of the News are part owners of the Herald, and the
owners of the Herald happy to have devoured a troublesome rival.” Among those serving as business manager during Brown’s tenure were Edgar T. Whatley, Thomas S. Parrott and Oren William Passavant. Passavant also served as editor in 1911 and 1912 in Brown’s absence. Passavant purchased the paper on Brown’s retirement in 1928, serving as editor until 1936. In 1933 the paper was cited for honorable mention in editorial competition. Passavant, who was born in Uniontown, Pa., in 1882, came to Newnan to live in 1906 and married Edgar Means North. The news staff in the early 1930s consisted of Passavant and a young woman named Roberta Lyndon, later Roberta Mayes of Atlanta. “I worked from 1934 until 1936 — when I came to Atlanta,” Mayes recalled in a 1988 interview. “I was a little of everything. Mr. Passavant didn’t have a large staff,” Mayes said. She remembered Passavant as “a marvelous person to work for.” In 1936, Passavant sold the paper to Hanson G. Ford. During the four years that Ford operated the Herald, his wife, Dorothy Gardner Ford, a descendant of Newnan’s Cole
See HISTORY, page 2B