FOND DU LAC – To commemorate its 150th anniversary, The (Fond du Lac) Reporter plans to publish a sesquicentennial series that reflects on the last 150 years in the community, the newspaper announced Thursday.
Originally known as The Fond du Lac Daily, editors J.A. Watrous and T.F. Reid started the publication in offices above Savings Bank on Fourth Street. The newspaper published its first issue on Aug. 22, 1870, and later that year it relocated to Forest Avenue.
The newspaper’s long history includes numerous changes not only in name but also location, management and ownership. By the late 1800s, The Daily became known as The Fond du Lac Commonwealth, and the city also had a competing daily newspaper, The Daily Commonwealth, which was founded in 1883 by Louie Augustus Lange.
In 1926, the two newspapers merged to form one large daily newspaper, the Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter. “Commonwealth” was dropped from the name by 1972, when the newspaper was sold to Thomson Newspapers, Inc. Within five years, the newspaper saw its final name change, becoming The Reporter.
After nearly three decades of Thomson ownership, the newspaper was sold in 2000 to Gannett along with several other Thomson-owned newspapers in central and northeastern Wisconsin. The Reporter has since become a part of Gannett’s statewide news operation known as USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, which also includes the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Green Bay Press-Gazette and eight other daily newspapers, as well as numerous weeklies.
