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| THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA |
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION |
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| INTRODUCED BY D. O'BRIEN, McGEEHAN, BOYLE, COHEN, CURRY, MURT, M. O'BRIEN, PAYTON, PERZEL, SABATINA, J. TAYLOR, BENNINGHOFF, BRENNAN, CALTAGIRONE, CONKLIN, DALEY, DALLY, DePASQUALE, DiGIROLAMO, FLECK, GEORGE, HARKINS, HELM, KORTZ, MANDERINO, MILLARD, PASHINSKI, REICHLEY, ROEBUCK, SAINATO, SEIP, SHAPIRO, SIPTROTH, STABACK, VEREB AND WALKO, AUGUST 18, 2009 |
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| INTRODUCED AS NONCONTROVERSIAL RESOLUTION UNDER RULE 35, AUGUST 18, 2009 |
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| A RESOLUTION |
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1 | Honoring the 75th anniversary of the Northeast Times newspaper |
2 | and its contributions to the people of northeast |
3 | Philadelphia. |
4 | WHEREAS, The Northeast Times has been a staple of news and |
5 | information to northeast Philadelphia for 75 years; and |
6 | WHEREAS, The Northeast Times began as the Mayfair Times, |
7 | started by Richard Thorpe Lawson in the winter of 1934 while |
8 | still a journalism student at Temple University; and |
9 | WHEREAS, Lawson invested his own savings and some bank loans |
10 | into secondhand equipment, including a linotype machine and |
11 | small press, and began the Mayfair Times as a one-man operation, |
12 | gathering community news, selling advertising, printing the |
13 | paper and distributing copies around the neighborhood; and |
14 | WHEREAS, Lawson eventually printed the Mayfair Times from a |
15 | narrow, three-story masonry building dating from the 1850s in |
16 | neighboring Holmesburg until 1991; and |
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1 | WHEREAS, The Mayfair Times began expanding its scope in the |
2 | 1950s to include distribution into the established row house |
3 | neighborhoods of the lower northeast; and |
4 | WHEREAS, During the 1950s and 1960s, the Mayfair Times |
5 | expanded into other neighborhoods, including Frankford, Tacony |
6 | and Holmesburg, enabling Lawson to build a small news-gathering |
7 | staff; and |
8 | WHEREAS, When Lawson passed away in 1961, his business-savvy |
9 | wife, Eleanor Smylie, continued the success of her late husband, |
10 | seeing the Mayfair Times through a significant growth spurt |
11 | during the 1980s, including a workforce growth to nearly 100 |
12 | employees, a move to computer technology, geographic expansion |
13 | to Somerton, Bustleton and Parkwood neighborhoods, a |
14 | reformatting to a smaller tabloid style and a decision to call |
15 | the paper the Northeast Times to reflect its broadening reach as |
16 | the paper of record; and |
17 | WHEREAS, Smylie's work, along with that of her two sons, |
18 | Robert and Tim Smylie, expanded the paper to a true northeast |
19 | newspaper with eight zoned editions and a combined weekly |
20 | circulation of nearly 110,000; and |
21 | WHEREAS, The Smylie family's expansions included the |
22 | acquisition of the Bucks County chain of shopper publications |
23 | that became the Midweek and today is known as The Trend and the |
24 | emergence of a parent media company, ProMedia, incorporated by |
25 | the Smylies to encompass the Northeast Times, Midweek and future |
26 | acquisitions and efforts devoted to expanding into new zones in |
27 | Montgomery County and other regions of Pennsylvania and southern |
28 | New Jersey; and |
29 | WHEREAS, When Eleanor Smylie passed away in 1998, the |
30 | family's 65-year ownership of the Northeast Times came to an end |
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1 | in February 1999 with the sale of the company to Philadelphia |
2 | Newspapers Inc., a Knight-Ridder subsidiary that published The |
3 | Philadelphia Inquirer and The Daily News; and |
4 | WHEREAS, In 2006, under the pressures of a changing newspaper |
5 | industry, Knight-Ridder was sold to Brian Tierney, a native of |
6 | the region, thereby returning the Northeast Times to local |
7 | ownership and safeguarding the legacy of a valued northeast |
8 | newspaper that was started in such modest fashion 75 years ago; |
9 | therefore be it |
10 | RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives honor the 75th |
11 | anniversary of the Northeast Times for its invaluable |
12 | contribution in reporting news and disseminating local |
13 | information to the people of northeast Philadelphia. |
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