{"id":102184,"date":"2026-01-01T12:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T12:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/102184\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T12:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T12:16:10","slug":"key-dates-in-orlando-sentinels-150-year-history-orlando-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/102184\/","title":{"rendered":"Key dates in Orlando Sentinel\u2019s 150-year history \u2013 Orlando Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Orlando Sentinel celebrates its 150th birthday this year, here\u2019s a look back at key dates in the history of the newspaper.<\/p>\n

1876 \u2013 Rufus Russell starts the weekly Orange County Reporter, Orlando\u2019s first newspaper, on June 6.<\/p>\n

1884 \u2013 The Orange County Reporter\u2019s building, archives and records are destroyed by a massive downtown Orlando fire.<\/p>\n

1885 \u2013 Latimer Clark Vaughn starts the weekly South Florida Sentinel, which begins publication in Orlando on March 4.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe weekly South Florida Sentinel begins publication in Orlando in 1885. It ceased publication in late 1903 when its owner left to go to Miami to start the Miami Record, which became the Miami Herald. The Sentinel was revived in 1907. (Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

1891 \u2013 Samuel R. Hudson buys the Reporter and makes it Orlando\u2019s first daily newspaper. Unfortunately, Orlando can\u2019t yet support a daily publication, so the Reporter later resumes weekly printing.<\/p>\n

1896 \u2013 T.P. Warlow Sr., W.F. Barnes and W. H. Jewell begin publication of the tri-weekly Orlando Star newspaper.<\/p>\n

1898 \u2013 Following an economic downturn and a devastating freeze that ruins the local citrus industry, the Sentinel and Reporter consolidate operations and become the Sentinel-Reporter. This marriage would last until 1905, when they would go back to separate titles.<\/p>\n

1903 \u2013 The Orlando Star starts printing daily and becomes the Evening Star.<\/p>\n

1905 \u2013 The Reporter becomes a daily evening newspaper in October.<\/p>\n

1906 \u2013 The Reporter and Star are combined and begin publishing each evening as the Daily Reporter-Star in February.<\/p>\n

\"MembersMembers of the combined Reporter-Star newspaper staff stand outside their downtown Orlando building in this undated photo. (Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

1913 \u2013\u00a0Josiah Ferris, owner of the weekly South Florida Sentinel, decides to experiment with Orlando\u2019s first daily morning newspaper during the Orange County Fair. Launched on Feb. 11, the Daily Sentinel is a success from the start. By December, it is renamed the Morning Sentinel.<\/p>\n

1925 \u2013 Texas publisher Charles E. Marsh buys the Orlando Morning Sentinel.<\/p>\n

1931 \u2013 At the height of the Great Depression, Marsh acquires the Reporter-Star and joins it with the Orlando Sentinel. Martin Andersen arrives to be managing editor of the newspapers and eventually becomes publisher.<\/p>\n

1945 \u2013 Andersen purchases the Sentinel and Reporter-Star.<\/p>\n

\"MartinMartin Andersen became the owner of the Orlando Sentinel and Reporter-Star in 1945 (Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

1946 \u2013 \u201cReporter\u201d is dropped from the Reporter-Star\u2019s name and the newspaper becomes the Orlando Evening Star.<\/p>\n

1951 \u2013 The Sentinel and Star move to a new downtown Orlando home at 633 N. Orange Avenue.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

Orlando Sentinel Archives\/Orlando Sentinel<\/p>\n

This picture from August 1951 shows the Sentinel’s new building at 633 N. Orange Ave. Back then the building was home to the Orlando Morning Sentinel and the Orlando Evening Star. (Orlando Sentinel archive)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

1965 \u2013 Andersen sells the Sentinel and Star to Chicago\u2019s Tribune Co.<\/p>\n

1973 \u2013 Orlando Sentinel and the Orlando Evening Star merge into one newspaper, becoming the Sentinel Star. It\u2019s a morning newspaper with an updated afternoon edition<\/p>\n

1982 \u2013 The Sentinel Star is renamed The Orlando Sentinel.<\/p>\n

1988 \u2013 The Orlando Sentinel wins its first Pulitzer Prize for \u201cFlorida\u2019s Shame,\u201d an editorial series on mismanaged growth in Central Florida written by Jane Healy.<\/p>\n

\"JaneJane Healy won the Orlando Sentinel’s first Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for her “Florida’s Shame” editorial series. (Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

1993 \u2013 The Sentinel wins its second Pulitzer for an investigative series on the unjust seizure of cash from motorists by the Volusia County Sheriff\u2019s drug squad, written by Jeff Brazil and Steve Berry.<\/p>\n

1995 \u2013 The Sentinel becomes one of the first newspapers to go digital with \u201cOrlando Sentinel Online\u201d on America Online.<\/p>\n

1996 \u2013 OrlandoSentinel.com launches on the world wide web.<\/p>\n

1997 \u2013 Orlando Sentinel and Time Warner Communications launch Central Florida News 13, the area\u2019s first 24-hour news station.<\/p>\n

2000 \u2013 Orlando Sentinel wins its third Pulitzer prize for editorial writing by John Bersia titled \u201cFleeced in Florida,\u201d about the state\u2019s unregulated cash-advance businessesthat prey on people in desperate financial situations.<\/p>\n

\"OrlandoOrlando Sentinel editor L. John Haile, right, applauds editorial writer John Bersia, left, who won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing on April 10, 2000. Bersia won the prize for his series of editorials against predatory lending practices in Florida, called “Fleeced in Florida.” (Sentinel file)<\/p>\n

2007 \u2013 Real estate mogul Sam Zell acquires Tribune Co., including the Sentinel, in an $8.7 billion privatization deal. Because of the transaction\u2019s high debt load, Tribune enters into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2008. It would emerge from Chapter 11 four years later.<\/p>\n

2015 \u2013 GrowthSpotter.com is launched by the Sentinel focusing on area development and real-estate news.<\/p>\n

2017 \u2013 The Sentinel is named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in breaking news for its coverage of the Pulse nightclub massacre.<\/p>\n

2020 \u2013 In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sentinel leaves its downtown headquarters at 633 N. Orange Avenue.
\n\"MembersMembers of the Orlando Sentinel newsroom gathered on Friday Aug. 28, 2020, to say goodbye to 633 N. Orange building that had been the newspaper’s home since 1951. The staff had been working remotely since March when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. (Sentinel file)\n<\/p>\n

2021 \u2013 The Sentinel and Tribune Publishing are acquired by Alden Global Capital and become part of its media holdings, which include Media News Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Orlando Sentinel celebrates its 150th birthday this year, here\u2019s a look back at key dates in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[53370,28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,53371,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-102184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-flashbacks","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-orange-county","14":"tag-orlando","15":"tag-orlando-headlines","16":"tag-orlando-news","17":"tag-orlando-sentinel-150","18":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}