Galveston County Daily News
Galveston County Daily News[1] ,[2] is Texas' oldest continuously published newspaper. Its first edition, then called "The Daily News", was published on April 11, 1842, by George French in a small downtown office located on Tremont street in Galveston, Texas. Texas was an independent republic at this time and Sam Houston was finishing his last term as president of the Republic of Texas. Galveston was a small village of about 4000 people through which all imports from the Gulf of Mexico into Texas would pass. The Dallas Morning News, first issued on Oct. 1, 1885, is considered to be Texas' oldest business institution, because it was founded by the Galveston County Daily News. Currently, the GCDN has approximately 29,000 subscribers and covers all of Galveston County, Texas. The current owners, Galveston Newspapers Inc. (GNI) acquired The Daily News in 1967. Dolph Tillotson currently serves as the editor and president of GNI, having succeeded Leslie P. Daughtry who ran the paper from 1967 until 1987.
History
The Great Storm of 1900
The Great Storm of Sept. 8, 1900, during which approximately 6000 Galvestonians died, is the nation's largest natural disaster and is among the most important topics ever covered by the Daily News.[3] Among the dead were 90 children and 10 sisters from the St. Mary's Orphans Asylum in Galveston. In the aftermath, reporters described a city nearly wiped clean with few remaining buildings, of citizens being conscripted to help collect the thousands of dead, and of personal recollections of a night from hell.
Today
The Daily News joined with "The Texas City Sun" in 2004, combining the circulation, staffs and advertisers of the two papers, and started publishing as The Galveston County Daily News, incorporating the best aspects of both papers and adding new features.