Timeline: The Dispatch in Downtown Columbus – The Columbus Dispatch
• July 1, 1871: The Daily Dispatch prints its first edition from rented headquarters at North High Street and Lynn Alley. It is four pages and costs 3 cents. It is an afternoon publication.
• Dec. 17, 1899: The Dispatch publishes its first Sunday edition. The nameplate reads “Columbus Sunday Dispatch” and it consists of 36 pages. The price is 3 cents.
• April 1905: Brothers Harry P. Wolfe and Robert F. Wolfe purchase The Columbus Evening Dispatch. The brothers, owners of a Columbus shoe company, had entered the publishing business two years earlier, when they purchased the Ohio State Journal.
From the editor: How The Dispatch has worked in service to the community since July 1, 1871
• April 9, 1907: Fire destroys the Dispatch Building at the 68 N. High St. (Gay and High) location. The cause is undetermined.
• April 9, 1907, to June 4, 1910: The newspaper is produced at 34-36 N. High St.
• June 5, 1910: Production resumes at the 68 N. High St. (Gay and High) location in a new building.
• Nov. 23, 1925: The Columbus Evening Dispatch publishes its first issue of the newspaper from its new headquarters at 34 S. Third St.
• 1944-45: During World War II, The Dispatch published a “Service Edition” designed for mailing overseas to men and women in the armed services. It was a miniature-sized, eight-page version of the paper, with news, sports, editorials and comics.
• Oct. 7, 1945: The Dispatch inaugurates its Sunday Magazine. Designed “by, for and about Ohio and Ohioans,” the magazine differs from similar publications with its exclusive presentation of locally based articles. The magazine publishes weekly until March 1989.
Columbus landmark:Columbus Dispatch sign stands as a symbol of 150 years of service to the community
• March 24, 1975: The Columbus Evening Dispatch becomes The Columbus Dispatch, though it would still be more than 10 years before the newspaper transitions to a morning publication.
• July 1, 1980: The Dispatch publishes the first “online” newspaper when it begins beaming news stories through the CompuServe dial-up service. It is the first daily newspaper in the country to test a new technology that enables the day’s news to flow into home computers.
• Jan. 1, 1986: The Dispatch becomes a morning publication.
• May 11, 1990: The redesigned Dispatch features its first front page with full color.
• Nov. 13, 1995: The first mention of www.dispatch.com in a Dispatch story.
• Jan. 28, 2013: The Dispatch begins publishing in a smaller and more compact format. The Dispatch is the first newspaper in the United States to adopt the new broadsheet size, and publishes in that format for just over seven years.
• June 15, 2015: The Dispatch Printing Company completes the sale of The Columbus Dispatch and its other print assets to New Media Investment Group. New Media, the holding company for GateHouse Media, bought The Columbus Dispatch for $47 million.
• February 2016: The Dispatch editorial operations move to a new Downtown location, 62 E. Broad St. A new sign is installed above the entrance to the building on Feb. 19. It reads: “The Columbus Dispatch / Dispatch.com.”
• June 2016: The Dispatch launches a concert series, “Window on the World,” in the large front window at 62 E. Broad St. It features central Ohio musicians and the occasional sports or news podcast.
• March 2019: The national trade magazine “Editor & Publisher” names The Dispatch one of its “10 Newspapers That Do It Right.”
• Nov. 14, 2019: GateHouse Media and Gannett announce a merger. The Dispatch becomes part of the USA Today Network, which includes 21 daily newspapers in Ohio, including The Akron Beacon Journal, The Repository in Canton and The Cincinnati Enquirer.
• May 12, 2021: For the eighth year in a row, The Dispatch is named the best among Ohio’s largest newspapers by the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors association. Dispatch.com is awarded first place for best digital presence for the third straight year.