The Battle Creek Enquirer’s mission is to empower our communities. We are dedicated to delivering essential and trusted content with a commitment to unbiased journalism.
Our journalists cover Calhoun County, from high school sports to tragedies and the justice system. We are guided by the principles of accuracy, independence and community commitment.
Our history: Key moments in the Enquirer’s past
The Enquirer is Battle Creek’s only daily newspaper. It is the sole survivor of an evolutionary process in which intense competition among several daily newspapers was resolved through merger and buyout.
The Enquirer’s history began in 1900 when Joseph L. Cox, journalist, entrepreneur and inventor, founded the Morning Enquirer. In 1907 it was sold to cereal magnate C.W. Post and became the first newspaper in town to subscribe to The Associated Press.
In 1910, A.L. Miller was hired to manage the Enquirer, thus beginning the long association of the Miller family with the newspaper and Battle Creek.
A.L. Miller launched a companion paper, the Evening News, in 1911 to challenge the competition from the Evening Journal, founded in 1872, and the Evening Moon, begun in 1878.
Following the merger of these rival publications as the Moon Journal, Miller joined his twin papers under the banner Enquirer and News in 1918. The Enquirer and News absorbed its competition in 1940 and eventually moved its operations into a new building erected on the cobblestone foundations of the old Moon Journal plant.
Miller bought the Enquirer and News in 1928. It became a link in the chain of small newspapers which Miller purchased as head of Federated Publications, which eventually included the Lansing State Journal, the Lafayette (Ind.) Journal Courier, the Marion (Ind.) Chronicle-Tribune, The Idaho Statesman and the Bellingham (Wash.) Herald and Daily Olympian.
Miller continued as owner and publisher of the Enquirer and News until his death in 1952. His standard for civic responsibility and community leadership became a tradition honored by his successors, son Robert Miller Sr. and grandson Bob Miller Jr.
In 1971, the Miller family enterprise, Federated Publications, became a wholly owned subsidiary of Gannett.
The Enquirer and News officially changed its name in 1983 to the Battle Creek Enquirer, but for longtime residents it remains “the Enquirer-News” or simply the “Enquirer.”
On Sept. 28, 1998, the newspaper converted from afternoon to morning publication.
In November 2000, the newspaper went online with www.battlecreekenquirer.com.
This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: About us: What to know about the Battle Creek Enquirer
Reporting by Liz Shepard, Port Huron Times Herald / Battle Creek Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
