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Daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin

The Wisconsin State Journal is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south central Wisconsin. As of September 2018, the Wisconsin State Journal had an average weekday circulation of 51,303 and an average Sunday circulation of 64,820. The State Journal is the state's official newspaper of record, and statutes and laws passed are regarded as official seven days after the publication of a state legal notice. The State Journal's editorial board earned the newsroom's first Pulitzer finalist honor in 2008 for its "persistent, high spirited campaign against abuses in the governor's veto power." The state's constitution was amended after the innovative, multi media editorial campaign and the governor's veto power was limited. The staff of the Wisconsin State Journal was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting in 2012 for its coverage of the "27 days of around the clock protests" at the state Capitol during the 2011 Wisconsin protests.

Founded by Madison Hotel proprietor William W. Wyman, the Madison Express was first published in Madison on December 2, 1839. The paper began as an afternoon weekly, but during legislative sessions would publish every other day. As a strong supporter of the Whig Party, the paper endorsed William Henry Harrison for president in 1840.

David Atwood was apprenticed as a printer with his brother's newspaper in Hamilton, New York before he arrived in Madison on Oct. 15, 1847. He soon became employed as a compositor and assistant editor at the Madison Express for $6 a week and board. He purchased the paper with partner Royal Buck in 1848, changing its name to the Wisconsin Express to expand its outlook. He also established the paper editorially as an outspoken opponent of slavery. In 1852 the weekly paper merged with Wyman's Wisconsin Statesman to become the Wisconsin Daily Palladium for three months. On Sept. 30, 1852 it changed its name again to the Wisconsin Daily Journal and to its current name in 1860. To bring in more revenue Atwood followed his brother's example in the east and began a lucrative sideline business of printing law books.

In the early 1850s Atwood was aided by Horace Rublee, who had left the University of Wisconsin to be the legislative reporter for the Democratic Madison Argus. In 1853 he was associate editor of the Journal and the next year Atwood's business partner. Rublee was well positioned to participate in the new state politics that emerged in response to the Kansas–Nebraska Act. As early as January 1854 the newspaper called for a mass convention of anti slavery citizens to meet in Madison. After events such as slave Joshua Glover's liberation in Milwaukee and the birth of the Republican Party on March 20, 1854 in Ripon, WI intervened, the convention that founded the Wisconsin Republican Party was held at the capitol on July 13 with Rublee acting as party secretary and Atwood serving on the resolutions committee. Rublee later became the chairman of the state Republican Party from 1859–1869. In 1860 he extended an unsuccessful invitation to Abraham Lincoln to speak at the party convention in Madison. Rublee allied himself with Madison mayor, postmaster and state patronage boss Elisha W. Keyes to run the "Madison Regency", the state's Republican machine. Rublee later broke with Keyes over the latter's support of President Andrew Johnson's vetoes of Freedman legislation. J. O. Culver purchased Rublee's interest in the paper in 1868 after Rublee was appointed minister to Switzerland by President Ulysses S. Grant. Rublee later became editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel, while Culver retired in December 1876. On July 10, 1861, the State Journal became the first newspaper to produce and sell ready printed "patent insides", pages with Civil War news on one side but blank on the other, where the Baraboo Republic then printed its local news and advertising. Fostered by business manager John S. Hawks, this invention helped make many rural papers possible. During the 1870s Hawks expanded the State Journal's printing of law books, picking up the contracts of a Chicago firm after it suffered a fire, and making the paper for a time the largest publisher of law books in the country. The paper's presses were also used for much of the state government's printing. After Atwood's passing, the State Journal Printing Co. was formed as a stock company, with Horace A. "Hod" Taylor taking over the paper. Although he had managed newspapers in La Crosse and Hudson, WI and Stillwater, Minnesota he was not a journalist, but instead used the paper to further his strong political ambitions. Taylor ran for governor as a stalwart Republican in 1888, losing the nomination to William D. Hoard. He ran for governor again in 1894, but lost the nomination to William H. Upham. He later held a consularship in Marseilles, France, as well as an appointment as U. S. Railroad Commissioner.

During the 1890s the paper's circulation began to catch up to its main rival, the Madison Democrat, due largely to the 1894 arrival of Yale educated Amos Parker Wilder (father of playwright Thornton Wilder). Earning $30 a week as editor in chief, he later purchased a major interest in the paper. In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Wilder U. S. consul to Hong Kong. In Wilder's absence he put his business manager August Roden in charge, a typesetter who had come up through the ranks as reporter and later associate editor. Roden adopted the aggressive brand of muckraking journalism common to periodicals at the start of the 20th century. His greatest triumph began in 1907 with his crusade against the high rates and poor quality of Madison Gas & Electric's service. Following an almost daily barrage of damaging stories about the private utility, the State Journal hired an attorney to lodge a formal complaint with the state commission in charge of regulating gas and electric companies. In 1910 the paper succeeded in getting the state to force a reduction in MG&E's rates by nearly ten percent, setting a precedent that led to other rate roll backs. Roden also oversaw the move of the State Journal in 1909 from a three story limestone building at 119 East Washington Ave. to a new fireproof brick building located on South Carroll Street. In 1911 Richard Lloyd Jones, an associate editor at the muckraking magazine Collier's, became interested in buying the paper from Wilder. U. S. Senator Robert M. La Follette Sr. encouraged this purchase to such a degree that he arranged for wealthy supporters of the progressive cause to lend Jones $85,000 of the $100,000 necessary to make the deal. Jones hired former State Journal reporter William T. Evjue as his managing editor. Jones ramped up the paper's already liberal views with hard hitting, provocative editorials that attacked big business and brooked no compromise. Soon the State Journal was the leading progressive daily in Wisconsin. The paper made its first two endorsements of a Democrat for U. S. president (Woodrow Wilson, in 1912 and 1916), endorsing only four other Democrats for that office in its history. Under Jones the State Journal also became a steady advocate for Prohibition. By 1913 the paper's circulation had increased but the paper was on the verge of bankruptcy. Jones called back Evjue from his honeymoon to take on the job of business manager. Within ten days he'd reduced a payroll of $2,200 a week to $1,300 by cutting staff. The paper also sought loans from wealthy progressives. New readers and advertisers were added with the help of a beefed up Sunday edition that included color comics, a pink sports section and a magazine supplement. Eventually circulation doubled.

Year endorsement for president (*lost) party 1840 William Henry Harrison Whig 1844 Henry Clay* Whig 1848 Zachary Taylor Whig 1852 Winfield Scott* Whig 1856 John C. Fremont* Republican 1860 Abraham Lincoln Republican 1864 Abraham Lincoln Republican 1868 Ulysses S. Grant Republican 1872 Ulysses S. Grant Republican 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes Republican 1880 James Garfield Republican 1884 James Blaine* Republican 1888 Benjamin Harrison Republican 1892 Benjamin Harrison* Republican 1896 William McKinley Republican 1900 William McKinley Republican 1904 Theodore Roosevelt Republican 1908 William Taft Republican 1912 Woodrow Wilson Democratic 1916 Woodrow Wilson Democratic 1920 Warren G. Harding Republican 1924 Calvin Coolidge Republican 1928 Herbert Hoover Republican 1932 Herbert Hoover* Republican 1936 Alf Landon* Republican 1940 Wendell Willkie* Republican 1944 Thomas Dewey* Republican 1948 Thomas Dewey* Republican 1952 Dwight Eisenhower Republican 1956 Dwight Eisenhower Republican 1960 Richard Nixon* Republican 1964 no endorsement n/a 1968 Richard Nixon Republican 1972 Richard Nixon Republican 1976 Gerald Ford* Republican 1980 Ronald Reagan Republican 1984 Ronald Reagan Republican 1988 George H. W. Bush Republican 1992 Bill Clinton Democratic 1996 Bob Dole* Republican 2000 George W. Bush Republican 2004 George W. Bush Republican 2008 Barack Obama Democratic 2012 Mitt Romney* Republican 2016 Hillary Clinton* Democratic 2020 Joe Biden Democratic