A History of Publishing
The Gleaner Company



THE GLEANER STORY
Few companies in Jamaica today can trace their historical beginnings back to 1834. The Gleaner Company Limited is one of these. The original proprietors were Jacob and Joshua DeCordova.

Notable Years in the
Life of the Company
    1834
  • September 13: first publication was a 4-page weekly newspaper printed at 66 West Harbour Street along with the Merchantile Intelligencer. It began life as The Gleaner and Weekly Compendium of News published on Saturdays only, at a quarterly subscription rate of 10 shillings in Kingston, and 13 shillings and four pence in the rural areas.
  • December: changed the name to “The Gleaner: A weekly family newspaper devoted to literature, morality, the arts and sciences, and amusements”.
    1836
  • Merger of deCordova’s Advertising Sheet with The Gleaner to produce a 4-page paper, published every day except Sundays.
    1875
  • The Gleaner was printed on a steam-driven press.
    1882
  • Fire destroyed the premises at 148 Harbour Street and The Gleaner was printed at The Government Printing Office for 2 weeks.
    1897
  • June 10: The Gleaner became a public company.
    1902
  • The Gleaner was increased to 16-pages and sold for one penny.
    1907
  • January 14: an earthquake and subsequent fire destroyed the building on Harbour Street, four days later the newspaper was on the streets again, and printing was done at the Government Printing Office for a time.
    1908
  • Rapid expansion with the introduction of 3 linotype machines.
    1912
  • A Photo-engraving department was installed.
    1917
  • Hoe Rotary Press was installed.
    1920
  • Motor delivery routes were established.
    1925
  • ‘The Pink Sheet’ magazine was added to the Saturday Gleaner.
    1939
  • April 1, the first Sunday Gleaner was published, right after World War II started.
    1950
  • June 11: The first Children's Own was published.
    1951
  • July: The first Overseas Gleaner (now The Weekly Gleaner) was published.
  • November 24: The first Star was published.
    1959
  • The Company installed a Crabtree rotary press, which allowed the Gleaner to print 9 colours and the Star 6 colours.
    1960
  • Branch offices were established, the first was located in Montego Bay
    1962
  • The Weekend Star was introduced, 24-pages with a 8-page entertainment section, priced at 3 pence.
    1963
  • The Sunday Magazine was added to the Sunday Gleaner.
    1964
  • Gleaner shares quoted on the Jamaica Stock Market at 12 shillings per five-shilling share.
    1969
  • The Gleaner “The Old Lady of Harbour Street” began operating at 7 North Street, its current location where a six unit Crabtree rotary press was installed.
    1982
  • Major computer system upgrade - making it one of the first newspapers in the Caribbean to switch over to new technology.
    1992
  • 7 December: Name change from The Daily Gleaner to The Gleaner.
    1993
  • System Integrators, Inc. (SII) provides news publishing solutions that allow organizations around the world to reach more than 50 million readers every day. SII began its partnership with The Gleaner Company Limited in 1994, with the installation of SII's System/66 Editorial publishing system. The system supplies 57 reporter workstations for input & management of news content, as well as a text archive system and an interface for entry of display advertisements.
  • The Library Archival Search Retrieval (LASR) system, manufactured by SII runs in conjunction with the SII publishing system (see above). LASR creates, maintains and accesses an on-line library of news stories. It is available to anyone who has authority to access the system (reporters, editors, researchers, others) who want to peruse all or part of published stories. With all data stored on-line retrieval is quick and comprehensive and the same story is available simultaneously to more than one user.
    1994
  • The Company installed a 16 unit Goss Urbanite press.
  • Installation of a new Pre-Press system with facility to fully paginate each newspaper page.
    1997
  • February 16: Launch of web site on www.jamaica-gleaner.com
  • June 9, The Gleaner Company Ltd. begun printing of The Miami Herald - International Satellite Edition on a daily basis.
    1998
  • The Editorial SII system was upgraded for Year 2000 compliance in early 1998.
  • New computer system CompuClass installed in the Advertising Department. CompuClass is a classified ad entry and management system that allows operators to enter, schedule, price, store, edit, manage, and typeset ads. The Production and System portions of CompuClass allow advanced system operators to perform functions such as creating rate tables, classification headers, and closing editions.
    1999
  • March 31, The Gleaner stopped printing The Miami Herald - International Satellite Version

Today it remains the island's leading newspaper group.

The Gleaner Company Ltd.
7 North Street, P O Box 40
Kingston, Jamaica, WI
Tel: (876) 922-3400-9
Fax: (876) 922-6297
Web site: www.jamaica-gleaner.com

The Company is now completely computerized for accounting and production purposes. Commercial printing on the Goss Urbanite offset press has allowed the Gleaner to offer its advertisers increased colour capacity and a higher standard of print quality in all its publications.

The Gleaner remains the Island's leading newspaper group, publishing two daily newspapers, The Daily Gleaner and The Star, and several other regular specialized publications. A number of special features and supplements run within the Gleaner's publications each week. These include a Shipping supplement, special holiday coverages for Carnival and Independence Day, as well as regular features on Real Estate, Business, Fashion, Health and Religion.