The Columbus Dispatch - Brief Article

Brandweek, April 30, 2001 by Lucia Moses

Ohio

Once upon a time, The Columbus Dispatch was better known for protecting sacred cows than for exposing them. Long after most papers had shed their political orientations, the Dispatch still served as a mouthpiece for the Republican politics of John W. Wolfe, chairman of parent company Dispatch Publishing.

After the 1986 demise of the city's other daily, the Columbus Citizen-Journal, the Dispatch had one less incentive to push itself. But with Wolfe's death in 1994, the paper began a complete transformation.

Now, says president and associate publisher Michael F. Curtin, the message from on high is an editor's dream: "[Publisher and the former chairman's cousin] John F. Wolfe has always preached, 'You cannot cheapen the product.'"

Curtin became editor the year John W. Wolfe died, and he established the new era. Benjamin J. Marrison succeeded him in November 1999. He's raised the quality of the news staff and has emphasized in-depth and investigative reporting.

"I really believe newspapers are the watchdogs of government," says Marrison, who came to the Dispatch from its nemesis to the north, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. There are no longer untouchable subjects, he says. "There's no story we can't do."

On the editorial pages, the Dispatch remains conservative, but it has grown more bipartisan, reflecting Columbus' increasing diversity. The paper made waves in 1999 when, for the first time in more than 50 years, it endorsed a Democrat for mayor.

The Ohio Associated Press awarded the Dispatch first place in the General Excellence category in 1999, and the paper was named Best Daily Newspaper by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists in 1997. Curtin wants the Dispatch to be the best paper in Ohio--and, he says, "I think most days of the week we are."