The Portland Reporter newspaper was born out of a long and bitter strike by union workers against the Samuel Newhouse-owned Oregonian, a morning paper, and the Oregon Journal, an afternoon newspaper controlled by trustees of the founding Jackson Family. The striked started in November 1959, and the unions launched the Portland Reporter as a weekly on Feb. 11, 1960. It went semi-weekly April 12, 1960, and daily (except Sunday) on Feb. 11, 1961. At its height, circulation reached 78,000 in spite of the fact that the two dailies continued to publish using non-union labor. In August 1961, Newhouse bought the Oregon Journal and moved it into his Oregonian plant. The Portland Reporter generated national attention for its challenge to Portland's newspaper monopoly until it folded in October 1964. Strikers continued to picket the dailies until April 4, 1965, but the Newhouse monopoly had essentially broken the strike long before.
A few months after the Portland Reporter started publishing, it moved into an old brick building at 1714 NW Overton Street after the labor unions refurbished it for their newspaper's new home. The building still stands in Northwest Portland as of 2004.
From the guide to the Portland Reporter, photographs collection, 1960-1964, (Oregon Historical Society Research Library)
