The Sunday Morning News Archive

The Sunday Morning News was started in January 1883 by William Edgar Sackett as a politically independent, weekly newspaper called the Tatler. He published it on Sundays. Within a year, the Tatler had absorbed the Jersey City Express and changed its name to the Sunday Tatler and Jersey City Express. It continued to be edited by William Edgar Sackett. In 1886 it changed its name again, this time to the Sunday Morning News, retaining its Independent political stance and with Sackett still as editor. Sackett, who originally trained to be a lawyer, was a prolific author and was well known as a journalist in New Jersey and New York. In addition to being the New Jersey correspondent for a number of New York newspapers, he also wrote Modern Battles of Trenton, How Wilson Became President, and was the editor of Scannell's New Jersey's First Citizens. In 1913 he unsuccessfully ran for New Jersey governor.

In 1889, three journalists from the New York Herald (including James Luby) purchased the plant of the Sunday Morning News, intending to print the newspaper seven days per week as the Jersey City News, with Luby as editor and Sackett as city editor, a position he retained for only a few months. The paper switched its leaning from Independent to Democratic. The Sunday paper was short-lived, as the managers of the Jersey City News announced the discontinuation of the Sunday edition on December 31, 1891. The revenue generated by the Sunday paper was not covering the expense of preparation. Instead, Luby announced that the daily Jersey City News would be remodeled and improved with the features from the Sunday paper appearing in the daily paper, including an expanded "Women's Column."