Editing Courier Journal (section)

===Gannett ownership===
{{update section|date=March 2017}}
[[File:CJ Dispenser.jpg|thumb|200px|A Courier Journal dispenser]]
On January 8, 1986, Barry Bingham Sr. announced his intent to sell the family owned media properties including the Courier-Journal.<ref>{{Cite book|last=E.|first=Tifft, Susan|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/123102936|title=The patriarch : the rise and fall of the Bingham dynasty|date=1993|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=0-671-79707-7|oclc=123102936|access-date=December 16, 2021|archive-date=May 1, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240501011254/https://search.worldcat.org/title/123102936|url-status=live}}</ref> In July 1986, [[Gannett Company, Inc.]] purchased the newspaper company for $300 million, outbidding [[The Washington Post]] and the [[Tribune company]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bingham Family Newspapers Sold to Gannett|url=https://apnews.com/article/58b26571abb7b2d1e68003e1e0b1c94e|access-date=December 16, 2021|website=AP NEWS|language=en|archive-date=March 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319080928/https://apnews.com/article/58b26571abb7b2d1e68003e1e0b1c94e|url-status=live}}</ref> Gannett appointed George N. Gill President and Publisher who had been with the newspaper and the Binghams for over two decades. Gill worked his way up from copy editor to chief executive officer of the Bingham Companies.<ref>{{Cite web|title=School of Journalism and Media : George N. Gill|url=https://ci.uky.edu/jam/hall_of_fame/1998/george-n-gill|access-date=December 16, 2021|website=ci.uky.edu|archive-date=December 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211216051612/https://ci.uky.edu/jam/hall_of_fame/1998/george-n-gill|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1993, Gill retired and Edward E. Manassah became president and Publisher.<ref>{{cite web|first=Alex|last=Jones|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/20/us/gannett-gets-louisville-papers-for-300-million.html|title=GANNETT GETS LOUISVILLE PAPERS FOR 300 MILLION|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 20, 1986|access-date=September 8, 2021|archive-date=May 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512162513/http://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/20/us/gannett-gets-louisville-papers-for-300-million.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

February 1987 saw the last publication of ''[[The Louisville Times]]'', which like most afternoon papers had experienced declining readership; the news operations of the two papers had previously been consolidated under Gannett. The surviving Courier featured a strong news content increase by 29%.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Coulson|first1=David C.|last2=Hansen|first2=Anne|date=March 1995|title=The Louisville Courier-Journal's News Content after Purchase by Gannett|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/107769909507200117|journal=Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly|language=en|volume=72|issue=1|pages=205–215|doi=10.1177/107769909507200117|s2cid=144734353|issn=1077-6990|access-date=December 16, 2021|archive-date=December 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211216051616/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/107769909507200117|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In 1989, the paper's news staff won the Pulitzer Prize for general local reporting for what the Pulitzer board called "exemplary initial coverage" of a [[Carrollton, Kentucky bus collision|collision]] that was the nation's worst drunk-driving crash and school-bus accident. In 2005, cartoonist [[Nick Anderson (cartoonist)|Nick Anderson]] won the paper's 10th Pulitzer, but when he left for the ''[[Houston Chronicle]]'', the paper did not replace him, instead relying largely on submissions from local cartoonists. One, lawyer Marc Murphy, has become a near-regular and gained respect for his work.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

The newspaper resumed polling on elections, and began video streaming its editorial-board conferences with major candidates, under Publisher Arnold "Arnie" Garson, who came from the Argus Leader, Gannett's paper in Sioux Falls, S.D., in late 2008. Garson is an outspoken promoter of the future of printed newspapers in the digital age. Under him, the paper began keeping occasional major stories or sports columns off its website and promoting them as print exclusives. Most of these have run on Sundays; in July 2009, Garson announced that the paper's Sunday home-delivery circulation was up 0.5 percent over the previous year.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}