Alicia Patterson
Village of Sands Point, Nassau County, New York
Marker Inscription
IN TRIBUTE TO ALICIA PATTERSON, 1906–1963 WAS A CO-PUBLISHER & EDITOR. SHE FOUNDED & LED LONG ISLAND'S NEWSDAY TO STATUS OF A MAJOR DAILY NEWSPAPER.
Erected by Governor George E. Pataki
The Story
In an era when newspaper mastheads were almost exclusively male, Alicia Patterson launched Newsday from a Long Island garage in 1940 and built it into one of the nation's most respected dailies. Born into a storied newspaper dynasty, she made her own mark by championing tenacious local reporting and a crusading editorial voice that spoke to the fast-growing suburbs of postwar Nassau County. By her death in 1963 the paper she founded and edited had become a major daily and a force in American journalism.
Why it matters
Patterson's success as a founding publisher and editor broke barriers for women in American journalism and helped define the modern suburban newspaper at the very moment Long Island's suburbs were booming.
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Related people
- · Alicia Patterson
Related events
- · Founding of Newsday
Themes & tags
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