{{Short description|Newspaper in Marion, Ohio}} {{good article}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Infobox newspaper | name = The Marion Star | logo = File:MarionStarLogo.svg | image =File:The Marion Star 1910 11 02 1.jpg | caption = (top) Present-day logo {{break}} (bottom) November 2, 1910 front page | type = Daily newspaper | format = Broadsheet | founded = 1877 | founder = Sam, Willis and Harry Hume | ceased_publication = | price = | owners = USA Today Co., formerly Gannett<ref>{{cite web |title=Brands |url=https://www.gannett.com/brands/ |at=Ohio |publisher=Gannett |access-date=29 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221202032118/https://www.gannett.com/brands/ |archive-date=2 December 2022 |url-status=live }}</ref> | language = English | circulation = 6,416 morning <br> 8,073 Sunday (2012)<ref name=gannettr/> | headquarters = 163 E. Center St., Ste. 100<br>Marion, Ohio 43302<br>United States | oclc = 18114262 | website = [http://marionstar.com/ marionstar.com] | issn = 1087-7495 }}
'''''The Marion Star''''' (formerly known as '''''The Marion Daily Star''''' and founded as the '''''Marion Daily Pebble''''') is a daily newspaper in Marion, Ohio. The paper is owned by USA Today Co., formerly the Gannett Newspaper organization. Founded in 1877 by Sam Hume and his sons Willis and Harry, it struggled financially in its early years and went insolvent in 1884. After the business was put up for auction at a sheriff's sale, it was purchased by future United States president Warren G. Harding and two of his friends, John O. Sickle and Jack Warwick (the former of whom left shortly after the purchase). Harding brought commercial success to the ''Star'' by improving the office equipment, soliciting classified advertisements and adding more content to the newspaper.
He owned it until June of 1923, when he sold the business to Roy D. Moore and Louis H. Brush, who later founded Brush-Moore Newspapers from the ''Star'' and several other Ohio newspapers they had acquired. After Harding's death in August of 1923, banker Frank A. Vanderlip accused Moore and Brush of having bribed Harding into selling them the newspaper; Moore and Brush sued Vanderlip for libel, and Vanderlip paid them a settlement in 1925. In 1928, the US Senate conducted an investigation into allegations that Harding had invested the money he received from the ''Star''{{'}}s sale in missing oil bonds; the allegation was proved false within days.
The ''Star'' was acquired by Thomson Newspapers in 1967; its name was changed to simply ''The Star'' in 1994, but was reverted to ''The Marion Star'' in 1996. In 2000, the Gannett Company purchased the ''Star'' and twenty other Thomson newspapers. During Harding's ownership, the ''Star'' often praised the Republican Party and opposed alcohol prohibition, but under Gannett it has claimed to be politically neutral. The ''Star'' is the only extant newspaper in Marion County, Ohio.
==Current operations== Gannett reported in 2012 that the print version of ''The Marion Star'' had a circulation of 6,416 for the morning edition and 8,073 for the Sunday edition.<ref name=gannettr>{{Cite report |url=https://www.proquest.com/reports/gannett-co-inc-annual-10k-report-2012/docview/1418865991 |title=Gannett Co Inc - Annual/10K Report, 2012 |date=2012 |publisher=Gannett Co. |page=20 |access-date=May 4, 2026}}</ref> In 2007 it reported that the ''Star'' had 66 employees.<ref name="Gannett profile">{{cite web |url=http://www.gannett.com/about/map/ataglance/marion.htm |url-status=dead |title=About Gannett: The Marion Star |publisher=Gannett Co., Inc. |access-date=2007-01-12 |archive-date=27 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927194741/http://www.gannett.com/about/map/ataglance/marion.htm }}</ref> {{as of|2026}} the ''Star'' has two reporters: Abby Bammerlin for news and Rob McCurdy for sports.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Staff Directory |url=https://www.marionstar.com/contact/staff/ |access-date=2026-05-04 |website=The Marion Star |language=en-US}}</ref> A person can buy either a digital-only subscription or a print-and-digital subscription, both of which will give him complete access to ''The Marion Star''{{'s}} website.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Marion Star Subscription Offers, Specials, and Discounts |url=https://subscribe.marionstar.com/offers |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=subscribe.marionstar.com|publisher=The Marion Star}}</ref> Special print editions come out on Thanksgivings and up to twice every month.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Subscription Terms & Conditions for The Marion Star |url=https://cm.marionstar.com/about-your-subscription/ |access-date=2026-02-16 |website=cm.marionstar.com |publisher=The Marion Star}}</ref>
==History== ===Early history (1877–1884)=== The ''Marion Daily Pebble'' was founded in 1877 by Sam Hume, a lumber salesman who had moved from Pleasant Township, Ohio to Marion, and his young sons Willis and Harry. Sam, Willis and Harry had previous but trivial experience in publishing, and Sam Hume thought that the city of Marion "needed a daily". Sam Hume's wife, Maria P. Hoxter, proofread the newspaper. The paper changed its name shortly after its creation to ''The Marion Daily Star''.<ref name="history"/><ref name=humble>{{Cite news |date=October 8, 1977 |title=Humble Birth From A Paper Called 'The Pebble' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-humble-birth-from-a-pape/191024465/ |access-date=2026-02-10 |work=The Marion Star |pages=16}}</ref>
Despite its name, the ''Marion Daily Star'' usually sent out only twice a week. Having the paper delivered to one's home cost ten cents, and picking it up at the post office cost seven.<ref name="history"/>{{sfn|Hall|2019|loc=ch. 1}} The newspaper's editorials and features were comedic, but because readers had limited interest in the comedy, the business began to struggle financially.{{sfn|Downes|1970|pp=16-17}} It was described in business magazine ''The World's Work'' as having been a "hell-box full of pied type and a broken-down press" during that time.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Sullivan |first=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lBfMGQ8-MpQC |work=The World's Work |title=One year of President Harding|date=1921 |publisher=W. Heinemann |language=en|p=293-299|editor-first=Chalmers|editor-last=Roberts}}</ref>
In 1884, the Humes sold the newspaper to Ben Dempster and moved to Indiana. Dempster sold it to Kelley Mount, but Mount, after alienating many of the paper's subscribers because of his outspoken praise for James G. Blaine and obsession with writing on politics,<ref name=humble/><ref name="history"/> resold it to Dempster in the same year.<ref name=celebrated/> According to Warren G. Harding, Dempster put the ''Star'', which by then had gone insolvent, up for auction at a sheriff's sale.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/sim_los-angeles-times_the-los-angeles-times_1920-08-15_39 |title=The Los Angeles Times 1920-08-15: Vol 39 |date=August 15, 1920 |publisher=Los Angeles Times Communications LLC |pages=146 |language=English}}</ref>{{sfn|Pietrusza|2009|loc=ch. 5}} Harding's father, George Tryon Harding, bought it with real estate instead of cash, paid off its debts and gave his son ownership of the newspaper. George Tryon Harding claimed that he himself never had any influence or control over the editorial policy of the ''Star''.{{sfn|Chapple|1920|p=42}} Warren lost his proprietorship shortly thereafter, when "[a] judgment was entered in court against some of the property Harding's father had traded for the paper".{{sfn|China Monthly Review|1923|p=355}}
===Management by Warren G. Harding (1884–1923)=== thumb|Warren G. Harding in 1882, aged 17 Later in 1884, an eighteen-year-old Warren Harding, along with his friends John O. Sickle{{efn|Sometimes given as Sickel.<ref name="nominees"/>}} and Jack Warwick,{{sfn|Downes|1970|p=18}} repurchased ''The Marion Daily Star'' for either $300 or $450 (Harding's recollection of the price varied). It is not clear whose money bought the newspaper. George may have paid for it,{{sfn|Hall|2019|loc=ch. 1}} or Warren, Sickle and Warwick may have pooled their money.<ref name="nominees"/> Harding named the business under which he published the ''Star'' the Star Publishing Company; it later became the Harding Publishing Company.<ref name="history"/> Within weeks after the purchase, Sickle, frustrated with the poor quality and difficulty of the printing equipment available at the office, quit.{{sfn|Pietrusza|2009|loc=ch. 5}}<ref name="nominees"/> Warwick, though, kept a job at the ''Star'' as a rewrite man.{{sfn|Downes|1970|pp=17-18}}<ref name="history"/>
Harding began editing at the newspaper immediately after he acquired it.<ref name="nominees">{{Cite news |last=Barry |first=Richard |date=27 September 1920 |title=Nominees as Newspaper Men |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115424819/nominees-newspaper-men/ |access-date=29 December 2022 |work=The Indianapolis Star |pages=8 |via=Newspapers.com |volume=18 |issue=114}}</ref> Harding was responsible for writing, proofreading, typesetting and printing the newspaper, and for managing the business component of it; Warwick assisted him in proofreading, typesetting and printing.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|p=43}}<ref name="history"/> Harding furnished the headquarters with new printing presses, a telephone and a telegraph, and hired reporters so that he could spend his time requesting advertisements and writing editorials instead of doing the reporting himself.{{sfn|Downes|1970|p=18}} Warwick got into an argument with Harding over Harding's decision to install the telephone, but remained with the newspaper until he found a new job at the ''Toledo Blade'' in 1904.<ref name="history"/>{{sfn|Adams|1939|p=10}}
Harding believed that classified advertisements were an important aspect to a newspaper's financial success and ability to beat competition. His preferred method of convincing people to pay to put advertisements in the ''Star'' was to meet with them personally and explain the advantages of advertising in a newspaper.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|pp=49-50}} He paid the ''Star''{{'}}s staff better than competitor newspapers paid their own staff, which kept his employees satisfied and deterred strikes.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|pp=58-59}} thumb|Harding working at ''The Marion Star''
Harding increased the length of the ''Star'' from four pages to an average of fourteen, with a comic strip and extra pages on Saturdays.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|pages=13, 58}} The paper's circulation increased from 1,000 to 15,000,{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|pages=54, 58}} it began to publish six days each week instead of semiweekly and by 1885 it had financially recovered; sometime before he was nominated presidential candidate, Harding jested to a man who offered to buy the newspaper from him that it would cost $200,000.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|pages=57-58}}<ref name="jarvis">{{Cite web |last=Jarvis |first=John |title=Warren G. Harding: A newspaperman who became the president |url=https://www.marionstar.com/story/local/2014/06/27/warren-g-harding-a-newspaperman-who-became-the-president/11561313/ |access-date=2025-12-01 |website=The Marion Star |language=en-US}}</ref> However, his success as an editor took a toll on his health; he was hospitalized five times between 1889 and 1901 at the Battle Creek Sanitorium for reasons his biographer, Andrew Sinclair, described as "fatigue, overstrain, and nervous illnesses".{{sfn|Sinclair|p=286}} Florence Kling, who became Florence Harding after Warren married her in 1891, acted as the ''Star''{{'}}s business manager and accountant but did not influence the actual editing or publication of the newspaper.{{sfn|Downes|1970|p=18}}
The ''Star'' encouraged industrialists to make improvements to the city of Marion, including through the development of new railroads; it supported the Black Diamond railroad, which was to send coal to Marion from Coshocton County mines. The railroad was never completed, and after the project's failure became apparent Harding denounced Albert E. Boone, the railroad's original proponent.{{sfn|Downes|1970|pp=19-20}} In 1890, Harding wrote in the ''Star'' that promoting Marion, which was not legally a city, to the status of a city would permit its municipal government to pave the then-dirt streets properly, because only a city council could handle the expenses to do so. On April 7 of that year, the majority of Marion citizens voted to make Marion a city. The pavement project was delayed by several years, after Harding wrote an editorial on April 9 that disparaged wealthy people who did not want the pavement.{{sfn|Downes|1970|pp=23-24}} thumb|Office of ''The Marion Daily Star'' in 1915 Later in the 1890s, Harding and George Crawford, publisher of the ''Independent'' (a competitor to the ''Star''), insulted and degraded each other via their own editorials. After Crawford published one in 1894 referring to Harding as a "moral leper" by whom "[s]ome of the best men in the city have been assailed", Harding called Crawford a "lickspittle organ" and a "parasite" in return.{{sfn|Adams|1939|pp=11-13}} James H. Vaughn, the publisher of another competitor, the Democratic ''Mirror'', accused Harding's father of being black ("woolly-headed"); Harding responded, "The ''Mirror'' grows amusing on the subject of wool. The suspicion is abroad that Colonel Vaughn has been chased by a vicious ram".{{sfn|Adams|1939|pp=4,15}}
The ''Star'' reported on Harding's campaigns for US senator in 1914 and United States president in 1920. When Harding announced his campaign for senatorship in May of 1914, the ''Star'' wrote that "[his] assurance of support come from every class, every faction and every locality in the state... The home sentiment is apparently very favorable to the candidacy".<ref name="marionman">{{Cite news |date=May 28, 1914 |title=Marion man a candidate |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-marion-man-a-candidate/186087318/ |access-date=2025-12-02 |work=The Marion Star |pages=4}}</ref> In July of 1920, the ''Star'' claimed that the ceremony in which Harding was formally notified of his selection as the primary Republican candidate for president "was the most notable exercise of its kind in history and drew more people than any similar ceremony within memory".<ref name="notified">{{Cite news |date=July 22, 1920 |title=Senator Harding is formally notified of his nomination for the presidency |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-senator-harding-is-forma/186088455/ |access-date=2025-12-02 |work=The Marion Star |pages=1}}</ref> On October 4, 1920, the ''Star'' published an opinion piece by Gifford Pinchot in which he explained why he wanted Harding to become president.<ref name="pinchot">{{Cite news |last=Pinchot |first=Gifford |date=October 4, 1920 |title=Why Gifford Pinchot is for Senator Harding |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-why-gifford-pinchot-is-f/186086296/ |access-date=2025-12-02 |work=The Marion Star |pages=2}}</ref>
After Harding won the presidential election on November 2, employees of the ''Star'' gifted him a golden printer's rule and gave Florence a flower bouquet.<ref name="moved">{{Cite news |date=November 3, 1920 |title=Hardings are deeply moved |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-hardings-are-deeply-move/186089552/ |access-date=2025-12-02 |work=The Marion Star |pages=2}}</ref> A few weeks afterward, Harding announced at a meeting with shareholders that, because he could not simultaneously work full-time at the ''Star'' and fulfill his obligations as president, he would give up his responsibilities as editor. Harding was sad to retire; he claimed that he loved the ''Star'' as if it were "a part of [his] body" and that he had had no regrets in becoming a newspaper publisher.<ref name="history">{{Cite news |date=October 8, 1977 |title=Harding Loved Star More Than Other Possessions; 'Pebble' Was 4 Pages Of Tidbit Information; W. G. Sold Star To Brush-Moore |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-harding-loved-star-more/186140814/ |access-date=2025-12-03 |work=The Marion Star |pages=17}}</ref> One of the last columns he wrote for the ''Star'' celebrated the centennial of Marion's founding.{{sfn|Cuneo|1922|p=149}}
===Ownership by Brush-Moore Newspapers (1923–1967)=== Harding retained ownership of the ''Star'' until June of 1923, when he sold the business to Louis H. Brush and Roy D. Moore (who also purchased the ''Marion Tribune'' around the same time)<ref name=celebrated>{{Cite news |date=May 21, 1978 |title=Marion Star Celebrated 100th Birthday |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-marion-star-celebrated-1/191034666/ |access-date=2026-02-11 |work=The Marion Star |pages=72}}</ref> for $480,000, although he intended to remain a stockholder and keep writing editorials for it.<ref name="willcontinue">{{Cite news |date=June 21, 1923 |title=Harding Sells Control of Marion Star, But Will Continue to Write Editorials (Published 1923) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1923/06/21/archives/harding-sells-control-of-marion-star-but-will-continue-to-write.html |access-date=2025-12-01 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="losescase">{{Cite news |date=November 5, 1935 |title=LOSES CASE OVER HARDING.; Buyer of Paper May Not Deduct Tax for Salary Paid to Heirs. (Published 1935) |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/11/05/archives/loses-case-over-harding-buyer-of-paper-may-not-deduct-tax-for.html |access-date=2025-12-01 |language=en}}</ref> Two months later, on August 2, 1923, Harding fell ill and died unexpectedly while in San Francisco, California. The ''Star''{{'}}s obituary of Harding on August 3 stated that "[w]ith a profound feeling of personal loss... the national capital was plunged into deepest mourning today as it awaited the return of [Harding's] body".<ref name="hardingdeath">{{Cite news |date=August 3, 1923 |title=President Harding succumbs to death, Calvin Coolidge succeeds him as President |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-marion-star-reports-pres/56246301/ |access-date=2025-12-02 |work=The Marion Star |pages=1}}</ref> On that day, the ''Star'' also published an editorial about Harding's death, titled "Greatest and Best Beloved".<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 10, 1923 |title=The Marion Star Editorial |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-the-marion-star-editori/191034166/ |access-date=2026-02-11 |work=The Boston Globe |pages=9}}</ref> thumb|Roy D. Moore (left) and Louis H. Brush (right) In February of 1924, Brush and Moore filed a libel lawsuit against banker Frank A. Vanderlip, seeking 1.2 million dollars in damages. Vanderlip had alleged in the ''New-York Tribune'' that the $480,000 that Brush and Moore had given Harding was a much higher amount than the newspaper's supposed actual value of $200,000, meaning that they had bribed Harding into selling them the ''Star''.<ref name="vanderlip1">{{Cite news|url=https://time.com/archive/6651041/national-affairs-mr-vanderlips-crusade/|title=National Affairs: Mr. Vanderlip's Crusade|publisher=Time Magazine|date=1924-03-03|access-date=2025-12-02}}</ref> The case was settled in January of 1925 with Vanderlip paying an undisclosed amount of money to Brush and Moore.<ref name="agreementmade">{{Cite news |date=January 15, 1925 |title=Agreement made after conference, paper announces |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-dayton-herald-agreement-made-after-c/186056152/ |access-date=2025-12-02 |work=The Dayton Herald |pages=1}}</ref> ''The Marion Daily Star'' became ''The Marion Star'' some time thereafter.<ref name=shine/> Brush and Moore founded Brush-Moore Newspapers, which included the ''Star'' and the ''Marion Tribune'', with William H. Vodrey in 1927.<ref name="history"/>
In March of 1928 the Senate reopened the investigation into Harding's sale of ''The Marion Star'', at the same time it was investigating the Teapot Dome scandal, due to allegations that Harding had invested the money he received from selling the ''Star'' in oil bonds from Continental Trading Co. that were now missing.<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 20, 1928 |title=Senate inquiry turns to sale of Marion Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-senate-inquiry-turns-to/191047064/ |access-date=2026-02-11 |work=Chicago Tribune |pages=1}}</ref> George H. Van Fleet, an editorial writer for the ''Star'', denied that Harding had invested in those securities and dismissed the allegations as a posthumous smear campaign against Harding.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 27, 1928 |title=Marion Star to defense of Harding |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/rockford-daily-republic-marion-star-to-d/191049081/ |access-date=2026-02-11 |work=Rockford Daily Republic |pages=27}}</ref> It was found a few days later that Harding could not have purchased the oil bonds, because the serial numbers of the ones he had purchased did not correspond to the Continental ones.<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 22, 1928 |title=Harding had no oil bonds |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-huntington-herald-harding-had-no-oil/191051684/ |access-date=2026-02-11 |work=The Huntington Herald |pages=1}}</ref> In 1935, Brush and Moore made a request to the Board of Tax Appeals that they be permitted to deduct a $13,300 annual salary, which Harding would have received from ''The Marion Star'' had he lived to retire from the presidency, from their income tax; they claimed that Harding's estate had been using legal threats to make them pay the salary out to them.<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 30, 1934 |title=Harding 'Salary' Paid Estate Under Threat, Publishers Say |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-buffalo-news-harding-salary-paid-e/191048254/ |access-date=2026-02-11 |work=The Buffalo News |pages=25}}</ref> The Board, however, denied the request after finding that the salary was "capital outlay".<ref name="losescase"/> ===Later history (1967–present)=== Thomson Newspapers acquired Brush-Moore Newspapers in 1967 for 72 million dollars, whereupon ''The Marion Star'' became part of the Thomson Newspaper chain, which already possessed 23 newspapers in the United States and 26 in Canada.<ref name="purchasers">{{Cite news |date=August 25, 1967 |title=Purchasers Add Group Of 12 Dailies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-purchasers-add-group-of/185977978/ |access-date=2025-12-01 |work=The Marion Star |pages=1}}</ref> At the time, this was the most expensive sale of a newspaper group in history.<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 25, 1967 |title=Brush-Moore Newspapers Sold To British Group |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/springfield-news-sun-brush-moore-newspap/186385902/ |access-date=2026-02-13 |work=Springfield News-Sun |pages=11}}</ref> Printers of the ''Star'' and of five other Thomson newspapers<ref>Printers strike six newspapers. (1976, Nov 02). ''New York Times'' (1923-) Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/printers-strike-six-newspapers/docview/122974594/se-2</ref> went on strike in 1976, causing a decrease in the ''Star''{{'}}s circulation to 18,366 in 1978 from about 23,000 in 1969.<ref name=hartman>{{Cite journal |last=Hartman |first=John K. |date=September 1983 |title=How 21–34 Year Olds Perceive Competing Newspapers in a Small-to-Medium Sized Market |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/073953298300500109 |journal=Newspaper Research Journal |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=91–100 |doi=10.1177/073953298300500109 |issn=0739-5329|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1994, Thomson Newspapers changed ''The Marion Star''{{'}}s name to simply ''The Star''. The change was reversed in 1996; Tim Dowd, its then-publisher, stated that he wanted readers to continue associating ''The Marion Star'' with the city of Marion.<ref name=shine>{{Cite news |last=Lawrence |first=Mary |date=February 28, 1996 |title='Marion' to shine in The Star once more |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-marion-to-shine-in-the/191021644/ |access-date=2026-02-10 |work=The Marion Star |pages=1}}</ref>
In June of 2000, the Gannett Company, which has since 2025 been USA Today Co.,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Aversa |first=Ralphie |title=Gannett enters a new era, company renamed USA TODAY Co. |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/11/04/gannett-renamed-usa-today-co/87087585007/ |access-date=2026-05-04 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}</ref> purchased Thomson's Central Ohio group of eight newspapers (including the ''Star''), plus 13 other Thomson papers.<ref name="sellsgannett">{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-thomson-will-sell-marion/186002902/|title=Thomson will sell Marion Star to Gannett|date=2000-06-09|work=The Marion Star|page=1|access-date=1 December 2025}}</ref> The headquarters of ''The Marion Star'' since the 1920s, on Court Street, were sold to developer Lois Fisher in 2013;<ref>Marion star moving to center state. (2013, Mar 29). Marion Star Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/marion-star-moving-center-state/docview/1321576245/se-2</ref> since then the ''Star'' has been based on 163 East Center Street.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Marion Star |url=https://cm.marionstar.com/faq-contact-us/ |access-date=2025-12-02 |website=cm.marionstar.com |publisher=The Marion Star}}</ref> Since 2014, the ''Star'' and other Ohio newspapers in the USA Today Co. network have been printed by the Dispatch Printing Company in Columbus, Ohio.<ref name="dispatch">{{Cite web |last=Feran |first=Tim |title=Dispatch to print 'USA Today,' several area Gannett newspapers |url=https://www.dispatch.com/story/business/2014/02/27/dispatch-to-print-usa-today/23445858007/ |access-date=2025-12-02 |website=The Columbus Dispatch |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2015, nine awards from the annual Associated Press Media Editors (APME) contest in Columbus were given to journalists of ''The Marion Star''; the ''Star'' was also third place in the APME's General Excellence category.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Marion Star captures 9 awards in state contest |url=https://www.marionstar.com/story/news/local/2015/05/04/marion-star-captures-awards-state-contest/26876555/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918154516/https://www.marionstar.com/story/news/local/2015/05/04/marion-star-captures-awards-state-contest/26876555/ |archive-date=2021-09-18 |date=2015-05-04|access-date=2026-02-11 |website=The Marion Star |publisher=The Marion Star |language=en-US}}</ref> The APME lauded the ''Star'' for "outstanding journalism" in 2021 and, again, gave it third place in General Excellence in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-04-05 |title=Marion Star recognized for excellence in journalism by Ohio APME |url=https://www.marionstar.com/story/news/local/2022/04/05/marion-star-recognized-excellence-journalism-ohio-apme/7268604001/ |access-date=2026-02-11 |website=The Marion Star |publisher=The Marion Star |language=en-US}}</ref> ''The Marion Star'' is, {{as of|2020|lc=y}}, the only extant newspaper in Marion County.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ohio |url=https://www.usnewsdeserts.com/states/ohio/ |access-date=2026-05-04 |website=The Expanding News Desert |publisher=UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media|language=en-US}}</ref> In April 2024, ''The Marion Star'' switched from carrier to postal delivery, as its website had grown more popular, and thus more profitable to maintain, than its print edition.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kendle |first=Jeanine |date=March 6, 2024 |title=The Marion Star transitioning to postal delivery in April |url=https://www.marionstar.com/story/news/local/2024/03/06/the-marion-transitioning-to-postal-delivery-in-april/72811453007/ |access-date=2024-03-07 |website=The Marion Star |language=en-US}}</ref> The Marion Public Library maintains a microfilm collection of the ''Star'' for public research;<ref name="sentimentaljourney">{{Cite web |last=Reid |first=Phil |title=Sentimental Journey {{!}} Sun Vaudeville Theater opened in 1911 |url=https://www.marionstar.com/story/news/local/2018/01/28/sentimental-journey-sun-vaudeville-theater-opened-1911/1058061001/ |access-date=2025-12-02 |website=The Marion Star |language=en-US}}</ref> the paper is also accessible for a monthly subscription fee through Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchive.<ref name="newspaperscom">{{Cite web |date=June 27, 1960 |title=Collection The Marion Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-marion-star/397/ |access-date=2025-12-02 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Marion Daily Star Newspaper Archives {{!}} NewspaperArchive |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/search/location/us/oh/marion/marion-daily-star/ |access-date=2025-12-02 |website=newspaperarchive.com |language=en}}</ref>
==Political views== Harding refrained from letting his Republican political views dictate the ''Star'', because he thought that a conspicuous political slant would ruin its profits by offending Democratic and nonpartisan readers.{{sfn|Downes|1970|pp=34-35}} Though it often praised the Republican Party and repeated many of Harding's political views, it never scorned the Democratic Party. ''The Marion Star'' gave no commentary about the 1885 or 1887 gubernatorial elections of Ohio.{{sfn|Adams|1939|p=11}}{{sfn|Downes|1970|pp=34-35}}
In the 1880s during the temperance movement, the ''Star'' repeated Harding's belief that, if the government wanted people to stop drinking alcohol, it would be more effective to tax people for alcohol than to ban it altogether. Harding supported the Dow Law, an act created in 1886 by Ohio governor Joseph B. Foraker that taxed alcohol vendors a yearly $100 or $200 depending on whether they sold wine/beer or liquor.{{sfn|Downes|1970|pp=42-43}} A September 10, 1886 editorial in the ''Star'' opined that the only reason prohibitionists opposed the Dow Law was "the fallacious idea that taxing the liquor traffic legalizes it".<ref name="prohibitionists">{{Cite news |date=September 10, 1886 |title=THE political prohibitionists... |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-marion-star-the-political-prohibitio/186116783/ |access-date=2025-12-03 |work=The Marion Star |pages=2}}</ref>
''The Marion Star'' claimed in a list of ethical policies in December 2023 that it, like all other USA Today Co. publications, would not and would never endorse or financially support any political parties, candidates or campaigns, nor allow its staff (barring opinion and editorial writers) to publicly express their political beliefs.<ref name="conduct">{{cite news|url=https://cm.marionstar.com/ethical-conduct|date=2023-12-04|publisher=The Marion Star|access-date=2025-12-01|title=USA TODAY NETWORK Principles of Ethical Conduct For Newsrooms}}</ref>
==Other notable staff== * Gary Abernathy – Political commentator who was a city editor for the ''Star'' between 1991 and 1993.<ref name="abernathy">{{Cite news |url=https://www.civitasmedia.com/company-news/109/abernathy-named-publisher-and-editor-of-times-gazette|title=Abernathy Named Publisher And Editor Of Times Gazette|url-status=dead|publisher=Civitas|date=2015-04-08|access-date=2025-12-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915004315/https://www.civitasmedia.com/company-news/109/abernathy-named-publisher-and-editor-of-times-gazette|archive-date=2015-09-15}}</ref> * Norman Thomas – American Civil Liberties Union founder and Socialist candidate for President; during his youth, he delivered ''The Marion Daily Star''{{'}}s papers.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1964-12-07 |title=Man in the News; Preacher of Dissent; Norman Mattoon Thomas |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/07/archives/man-in-the-news-preacher-of-dissent-norman-mattoon-thomas.html |access-date=2024-02-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Marion County Foundation |title=MarionMade profile: Activist, socialist, presidential candidate Norman Thomas |url=https://www.marionstar.com/story/news/local/2018/07/01/marionmade-activist-socialist-norman-thomas/743352002/ |date=2018-07-01|access-date=2026-05-04 |website=The Marion Star |language=en-US}}</ref>
==References== {{notelist}} {{reflist}}
==Works cited== *{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=Sheryl Smart |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0QB3CQAAQBAJ |title=Warren G. Harding & the Marion Daily Star: How Newspapering Shaped a President |date=January 23, 2019 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-62584-942-7 |language=en}} *{{Cite book |last=Pietrusza |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uia4A04q8dMC |title=1920: The Year of the Six Presidents |date=April 21, 2009 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-7867-3213-5 |language=en}} *{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-CSxduRTw4C |title=Millard's Review of the Far East |date=1923 |last=China Monthly Review |language=en}} *{{Cite book |last=Cuneo |first=Sherman A. |url=http://archive.org/details/fromprintertopre00cuneuoft |title=From printer to president |date=1922 |publisher=Philadelphia, Dorrance}} *{{Cite book |last=Downes |first=Randolph C. (Randolph Chandler) |url=http://archive.org/details/riseofwarrengama00down |title=The rise of Warren Gamaliel Harding, 1865-1920 |date=1970 |publisher=[Columbus] Ohio State University Press |isbn=978-0-8142-0140-4}} *{{Cite book |last=Adams |first=Samuel Hopkins|url=http://archive.org/details/incredibleerathw0000samu |title=Incredible Era: The Life and Times of Warren Gamaliel Harding |date=1939}} *{{Cite book |last=Chapple |first=Joe Mitchell |url=http://archive.org/details/warrenghardingth00lcchap |title=Warren G. Harding--the man |date=1920 |publisher=Boston, Chapple publishing company, limited}} * {{Cite book|last=Sinclair|first=Andrew|title=The Available Man: The Life behind the Masks of Warren Gamaliel Harding|publisher=Quadrangle Books|location=Chicago|oclc=422550801|edition=1st Quadrangle Paperback|ref={{sfnRef|Sinclair}}|year=1969|orig-year=1965}} ==External links== {{Portal|Ohio|Journalism}} *[http://www.marionstar.com/ The ''Marion Star'' official website]
{{Gannett}} {{Warren G. Harding}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marion Star, The}} Category:Newspapers published in Ohio Category:Marion County, Ohio Category:USA Today Co. publications Category:Warren G. Harding Category:Marion, Ohio Category:Newspapers established in 1877 Category:1877 establishments in Ohio