Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Born near 4th of July, Sun holds tight to independence

It is fitting that the Las Vegas Sun -- a fiercely independent newspaper -- was born 50 years ago, just days before Independence Day.

Freedom of choice, certainly, is one of the blessings wrought by the War of Independence.

Las Vegans have that freedom in what is now one of the few two-newspaper towns where both newspapers are not owned by the same corporation.

In 1990 the Sun entered into a Joint Operating Agreement with the Review-Journal, which meant that advertising, marketing, printing and circulation services were merged under the control of the Review-Journal. The Sun editorial department, which produces the news, however, is independent. It's free to bring its readers a fresh and vibrant second voice.

When our forefathers founded this nation, they realized the importance of freedom of the press by making it part of the First Amendment to the Constitution. They could not have envisioned that cities one day would have five or six different voices, nor that in time most of those voices would disappear or be swallowed up by big corporations.

Crusading newspaper publishers emerged in the tradition of the colonies' first patriotic newspapers that boldly criticized the tyranny of the oppressive British regime.

Late Sun Publisher Hank Greenspun was one such man -- a dynamic muckraker and sensational editor in the tradition of American newspapermen William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.

Indeed, Greenspun was among the last of a dying breed.

On several occasions Greenspun turned down generous offers to sell the Sun and make it part of a nationwide newspaper chain.

One such offer came from press empire baron Rupert Murdoch.

"People don't go for the canned bullshit that chain newspapers now put out," Greenspun said in an April 24, 1984, Reno Gazette-Journal story that named him the fourth most powerful man in Nevada. "They want a good hometown paper. No one fights for Las Vegas as much as me."

The Las Vegas Sun and Greenspun have been synonymous since the start. Indeed, the continuing history of the Sun is the legacy of Hank Greenspun. And certainly the story of the Sun and its sister businesses cannot be told without telling of Greenspun's many contributions to the paper and to the Las Vegas community.

Not even Greenspun's death nearly 11 years ago could separate the strong editorial voice of the paper from the man of great vision and great sense of community.

That is why as the Sun celebrates reaching the half-century mark as an independent newspaper on the eve of the nation's birth, it does so with an eye on the future as it recounts its colorful past.

Few modern American newspapers have as interesting a beginning, as crusading a history and as promising a future as the Sun.

From modest roots, the Sun has blossomed into a multi media daily newspaper that offers Nevada's largest Internet website and partners with an all-news cable TV station.

Indeed, Hank Greenspun was an entrepreneur with tremendous foresight:

So keen was the foresight of Greenspun's front-page "Where I Stand" columns that some of them were reprinted in the 1990s -- and will continue to be reprinted in the 2000s -- because they remain as fresh and insightful as the day they were written.

For example, when Greenspun's good friend, legendary entertainer Frank Sinatra, died on May 14, 1998, Greenspun's April 30, 1978, column about Sinatra's generosity to UNLV and Las Vegas was reprinted beneath the front-page obituary. Although 20 years had passed, the column had not lost any of its luster or significance.

Greenspun and the Sun have long comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable.

In the April 1984 Gazette-Journal article, Greenspun said: "Yes I do use the paper (Sun) as a cudgel. If we hit a politician over the head, chances are he has a closed mind. We're trying to open up the crevices so clear thinking can result."

Greenspun purchased the paper that would become the Sun after the International Typographical Union was locked out at the Review-Journal during a 1949 labor dispute in which that paper refused to negotiate a contract.

Those pressmen and composition workers got together and published the first issue of the thrice-weekly Las Vegas Free Press on May 3, 1950. Facing financial problems early on, the union approached Greenspun, who bought the paper and published the 22nd edition of the Free Press on May 21, 1950.

On July 1, 1950, the paper was renamed the Las Vegas Sun and became a morning daily.

The Sun became the afternoon paper in 1990, the year the Sun entered the Joint Operating Agreement with the Review-Journal.

Over the years, the Sun took on causes the Review-Journal opposed or ignored:

On Nov. 21, 1963, the Sun offices, then at 900 S. Main St., burned. Greenspun, who was in Switzerland on the day of the blaze, was most proud that the Sun continued to publish, never missing an edition.

Was anyone hurt?

When informed by an editor that the paper had burned, the first question Greenspun asked was not about what material things were destroyed but rather, "Was anyone hurt?" No one was.

The paper set up a temporary office in the home of Ruthe Deskin, the longtime assistant to the publisher. The city desk was in her kitchen. For close to a year, the Sun was printed in Arizona and California.

The Sun moved into a new building at 121 S. Highland Ave. -- now Martin Luther King Boulevard. Today it is the site of Cox Communications.

The Sun moved to 800 S. Valley View Blvd. in the early 1990s. Recently plans were announced to move to a new building now under construction in Green Valley.

While his newspaper was his first love, Greenspun saw early on the potential of reaching the public through electronic media. In the early 1950s Greenspun founded KLAS Channel 8 (later selling it) and was one of the original owners of KRAM radio.

Cable television

Today the Sun is part owner of Las Vegas ONE, the area's first 24-hour local cable news channel. The other owners are KLAS Channel 8 and Cox Communications.

The Sun and Las Vegas ONE team to bring readers and viewers a complete news package. The Sun has its own news show on the station, "Point of View Vegas," which airs at 4:30, 5:30 and 8 p.m. It also contributes to an hourlong Las Vegas ONE morning show that airs live at 9 a.m. and is rebroadcast at 10. Sun reporters also contribute to the station's 9 p.m. local news program.

In the 1960s and '70s Greenspun won cable television franchises throughout the Las Vegas Valley. Starting in 1980, his Prime Cable began operations and became the largest cable company in the valley with more than 300,000 subscribers. Cox Communications last year bought 80 percent interest in Prime Cable for $1.3 billion.

The Sun's website, Vegas.com, which came online in May 1996, also evolved from Greenspun's commitment to multimedia.

And the evolution continues with the Greenspun Media Group, which publishes ShowBiz Weekly, Las Vegas Weekly and VegasGolfer magazines, and weekly papers Las Vegas Life and In Business Las Vegas.

The Greenspun Media Group recently obtained the services of longtime local political columnist Jon Ralston and publishes his well-read "Ralston Report" newsletter and produces his television show of the same name on Las Vegas ONE. Ralston also writes a Sun column twice a week and a daily e-mail report, "Flash."

In 1971 Greenspun took his biggest financial risk by investing $1.3 million to purchase from Henderson more than 4,700 acres to develop Green Valley. The move increased both the population and tax base of Henderson, which resulted in the town becoming one of America's fastest-growing cities.

But while Greenspun's cable and real estate interests grew, the Sun suffered financial setbacks common to second newspapers in cities throughout America in the 1970s and '80s. But unlike a lot of those newspapers that folded, the Sun persevered.

In 1982 every Sun employee who was paid greater than $15,000 a year -- including Greenspun -- took a 5 percent salary cut.

Today Sun reporters and other employees earn salary and benefits comparable to other papers of its size. Also, new staffers are hired only after long and sometimes nationwide searches.

Not only did the Sun survive its tough times because of its editorial crusades, but it also gave back to the community in the form of charitable actions.

Sun Camp Fund

Perhaps the most noted of the Sun's community programs is the Sun Camp Fund. For 29 years it has sent thousands of poor local children to summer camp. And the Sun Youth Forum has provided a voice for high school students for 44 years.

In the 1970s and '80s Greenspun offered Sun subscribers the free service of a tax lawyer should they be called in for an IRS audit. For its series on IRS abuses, the Sun won the state press association's 1979 Community Service Award.

Greenspun and his newspaper also took up the fight for then-U.S. District Court Judge Harry Claiborne, who maintained he was victimized by a federal vendetta and was not guilty of the tax charges against him.

The Sun uncovered much of the evidence used in Claiborne's defense throughout his court trials and impeachment proceedings before Congress. Greenspun went so far as to testify on behalf of Claiborne that the judge was the victim of an over-reaching federal government bent on removing him from office at any cost.

Although Claiborne was removed from the bench and today is a private local attorney, the Sun's coverage unmasked many of the questionable practices the federal government used against him and severely hurt the credibility and image of the FBI and other agencies.

In 1989 Greenspun, staving off a yearlong losing battle with cancer, brokered the Joint Operating Agreement with the Review-Journal, assuring that his vision of a second strong editorial voice in the community would survive for many Independence Days and anniversaries to come.

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