Armed Forces Journal

Armed Forces Journal
Former editorsWilliam Conant Church
Willard Church
Henry J. Reilly
John Callan O'Laughlin
LeRoy Whitman
Daniel Z. Henkin
Benjamin Schemmer
John Roos
Thomas Donnelly
Karen Walker
Bradley Peniston
CategoriesJournal
FrequencyMonthly
Circulation27,000
PublisherMichael Reinstein
FounderWilliam Conant Church, Francis Pharcellus Church
First issueAugust 29, 1863
Final issueApril 2014
CompanySightline Media Group
CountryUnited States
Based inSpringfield, Virginia
LanguageEnglish
Websitearmedforcesjournal.com
ISSN0196-3597

Armed Forces Journal (AFJ) was a publication for American military officers and leaders in government and industry.

Created in 1863 as a weekly newspaper, AFJ was published under various names by various owners in various formats for more than 150 years. The publication went all-digital after the July/August 2013 issue,[1] and last updated its website on April 29, 2014.[2]

The brand is currently owned by Sightline Media Group, a holding of private equity firm Regent, which bought the media group in 2016 from Tegna.[3]

History

[edit]

1800s

[edit]
Page 1 of the first issue, published August 29, 1863

The publication was founded as The Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces, a weekly newspaper printed in New York City. Its founders were brothers Francis Pharcellus Church and William Conant Church. William was a newspaperman and American Civil War veteran. In his youth, he had helped his father edit and publish the New York Chronicle; in 1860, aged 24, he became publisher of the New York Sun, and the following year, took a job as the Washington correspondent of The New York Times. In 1862, he was appointed a captain in the United States Volunteers; he served for one year, receiving brevets of major and lieutenant colonel.

Francis, who had covered the Civil War as a reporter for The New York Times, would go on to write for the Sun, where he penned one of the most famous editorials in American journalism: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

The first issue was published on August 29, 1863,[4] with this motto: "Established in obedience to an insistent demand for an official organ for members of the American Defense and those concerned with it."[5] The paper included news of the Civil War, then in its third year, along with "important official reports, lists of promotions, discussions upon the various appliances and methods of war, editorial comments upon the various naval and military questions of the day, and a great mass of information for the use of professional and non-professional readers."[6] A single copy cost 10 cents; an annual subscription was five dollars.[7]

Two years later, The New York Times noted the publication of the second annual bound volume of the newspaper's issues. "The proprietors of the Army and Navy Journal, in commencing the publication of their paper two years ago, sought to supply what hitherto we had been without – an organ devoted to the military and naval history and organizations of the United States. That they have fully succeeded, the great mass of material in the volume before us amply proves."[6]

In the decade after the war, the Army and Navy Journal played a role in the increasing professionalization of the U.S. military. It was not a professional journal like several others that appeared after the war, but "...along with its social and other items about service personnel it carried articles, correspondence, and news of interest to military people that helped bind its readers together in a common professional fraternity."[8]

William Church would go on to help found the National Rifle Association of America in 1871;[9][10] he and his newspaper remained fixtures in the political firmament for decades.

From 1894–95, the newspaper's naval editor was Winston Churchill — not the future British prime minister, but rather a recent graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who had organized the first 8-man rowing squad there and who would go on to a celebrated career as a novelist.[11]

1900s

[edit]

On January 19, 1903, William Church was the guest of honor at a dinner at Delmonico's restaurant in New York. Speakers at the dinner included Gen. Adna Chaffee, soon to become Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, and New York mayor Seth Low; letters of regret were read from President Theodore Roosevelt, Navy Secretary William Henry Moody, Secretary of State John Hay, and financier J. Pierpont Morgan.[12]

After William Church died in 1917, the editorship was taken up for a few years by Willard Church.[13]

1921 brought a new publisher, Franklin Coe,[4] and a new editor, retired Brig. Gen. Henry J. Reilly. Reilly was a West Point graduate who had commanded an artillery regiment in France during World War I,[14] and who would go on to co-found and lead the Reserve Officers Association. The name of the newspaper changed as well, achieving its all-time longest length as The American Army and Navy Journal, and Gazette of the Regular, National Guard and Reserve Forces.[15] In 1922, a year's subscription was still $6, unchanged in more than half a century. Circulation was 20,293 and the home office was located at 20 Vesey Street in New York.[16] That same year, the paper absorbed National Service,[15] the official publication of the Military Training Camps Association.[17]

Through the years, the newspaper and its parent company published several books. Perhaps the earliest was "The Eclipse of American Sea Power" by Captain Dudley W. Knox, then the newspaper's naval correspondent (1920–23) and ultimately one of the most influential historians to wear a U.S. Navy uniform.[18] The book, Knox's first, was published in 1922 by J.J. Little & Ives Co. under the copyright of The American Army & Navy Journal Inc.[19]

In 1924, the newspaper's name was truncated to simply The Army and Navy Journal.[15]

O'Laughlin era

[edit]

In 1925, the newspaper was purchased by John Callan O'Laughlin, a former Associated Press reporter who served during World War I as a major in the U.S. Army's Quartermaster Corps. He was an intimate of Roosevelt's, having worked as a go-between with the Russians in arranging the Russo-Japanese peaces, and later serving briefly as the president's first assistant secretary of state.[5]

O'Laughlin installed himself as editor and publisher, and changed the newspaper's name to the Army and Navy Journal; The Gazette of the Land, Sea, and Air.[4] Five years later, O'Laughlin appointed LeRoy Whitman as editor.[4]

In 1933, the newspaper changed format, from a broadsheet to a smaller tabloid.[20] Its offices were then located at 1701 Connecticut Avenue NW in Washington, D.C.[21]

O'Laughlin wrote to Gen. Douglas MacArthur, then the Army chief of staff and acting Secretary of War, offering to have his newspaper make and award medals for the best-run camps of the Civilian Conservation Corps. MacArthur accepted the offer, writing back, "In accepting your generous offer permit me to express my appreciation of the cooperative attitude that has always characterized your contacts with the War Department."[21]

By 1938, when the magazine celebrated its 75th anniversary, it had added a motto: "Spokesman of the Services Since 1863".[22]

In January 1945, Time magazine decided to take the "jovial, rosy-cheeked" O'Laughlin and his newspaper down a peg. Soviet state-controlled press had recently decried the Journal's call for Moscow to establish a second front against Nazi Germany in Poland. "All this attention from Russia was due not to the Army & Navy Journal's circulation (27,568 weekly) but to its reputation as an 'unofficial but authoritative' spokesman for the U.S. Army & Navy. The Journal itself likes to foster this impression... Actually, the Journal is not in the least official. Nor is it always authoritative." O'Laughlin, the newsweekly sniffed, "still does much of its leg work. He has five assistants, only one of whom (a former chaplain) has a military background."[5]

Post-O'Laughlin era

[edit]

In March 1949, O'Laughlin died with no immediate survivors. A member of the Gridiron Club, he bequeathed the Journal to the organization, a club for journalists in Washington, D.C.[23] News reports valued the publication, "regarded almost as an official organ of the armed forces", at $500,000 ($6.4 million today[24]).[25] But the bequest, made in the form of a trust to be administered by the club, created a conundrum for the social organization. As one newspaper reported, "Publishing magazines is completely out of the club's line."[26]

On May 13, 1950, the name changed to The Army, Navy, Air Force Journal.[7]

In March 1958, the trustees of O'Laughlin's Gridiron Club trust sold the Journal to its long-time editor, LeRoy Whitman, and its general manager, Dorothy Cone Brown.[27]

On January 4, 1962, the publication was sold to the Military Service Publishing Company of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.[28]

In 1962, the Journal absorbed The Army-Navy-Air Force Register. One of the oldest military-themed publications, the Register was first published December 13, 1879, as The Army and Navy Register.[29][30] On March 17, the merged publication was renamed The Army-Navy-Air Force Journal & Register.[7]

That name lasted two years. Starting with the issue of July 8, 1964, the magazine was renamed The Journal of the Armed Forces.[15]

In January 1965, LeRoy Whitman stepped down after 35 years as editor. His successor was Daniel Z. Henkin, who had joined the staff in 1948 as assistant editor. Henkin left after just nine months to become the director of operations for the Pentagon's press office.[31]

From 1963 to 1967, the publisher was James A. Donovan, a retired Marine Corps colonel.[32]

Schemmer era

[edit]

By the late 1960s, the newspaper was known and read mostly for its social news of the U.S. officer corps. That changed in 1968, when it was purchased by Benjamin F. Schemmer. A 1954 graduate of West Point, Schemmer had served five years as an infantry officer, worked for Boeing until 1965, then become the director of land force weapon systems in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Systems Analysis).[32][33] On July 6, 1968, Schemmer renamed the publication Armed Forces Journal and turned it into a weekly magazine with a new focus: in-depth analytical coverage of defense issues. It also received a new subhead: "Defense Weekly" replaced "Spokesman of the Services Since 1863".[33] In August 1971, the weekly became a monthly.[7] In February 1974, Schemmer added a word to the title, dubbing the publication Armed Forces Journal International.[29]

LuAnne K. Levens, Schemmer's second wife, became publisher in 1977.[34]

Noted defense expert Anthony Cordesman served as AFJ's international editor until about April 1984.[35]

In March 1988, Schemmer and Levens sold AFJI to Pergamon-Brassey's Defense Publishers of Greenwich, Connecticut,[36] a U.S. subsidiary of Britain's Maxwell Communications.[37] Various newspapers reported the magazine's circulation at that time as about 42,500[38] or 45,000, with about half paid and half sent free to key leaders.[36] "The publication covers the international defense arena, weapons and research, electronics, the Soviet military and military issues in Congress, the Pentagon and the White House," The Washington Post said.[36] Schemmer, who stayed on as editor, said the larger company had first approached him about five years previously, and that he and Levens had finally sold because they believed Maxwell offered "enormous possibilities for international expansion."[36]

Schemmer resigned in 1992, citing health reasons.[39]

Next to occupy the editor's chair was John Roos, a retired major with 21 years of service in the U.S. Army.[40]

In 1993, the magazine was purchased by Donald Fruehling, who had run the U.S. division of Maxwell Communications when it acquired AFJI, and his wife Gudrun. Maxwell Communications had gone bankrupt and was broken up.[33]

2000s

[edit]

Gannett era

[edit]

In September 2002, Armed Forces Journal International Publishing Co. was purchased by Army Times Publishing Company, a division of Gannett. An Associated Press report described AFJ as a magazine that "gives military officers analysis, insight and commentary on the latest technological and strategic developments."[41]

In November 2005, Thomas Donnelly became editor.[42]

Eleven months later, Karen Walker, formerly managing editor, replaced Donnelly as editor.[43] In April 2007, AFJ published "A Failure in Generalship" by Army Col. Paul Yingling.[44] The Washington Post described it as "a blistering attack on U.S. generals" and a signal of the "public emergence of a split inside the military between younger, mid-career officers and the top brass".[45] In the article, Yingling argues that the U.S. general corps needs to be overhauled because it failed to anticipate the post-invasion insurgency in Iraq, and because of its reluctance to admit the onset of such an insurgency in 2004.[46] The article drew national media coverage[47] and would go on to be widely cited in military and academic writing.[48] Journalist Peter Maass called Yingling "perhaps the most respected military dissenter of his generation".[49]

In 2011, Bradley Peniston took over as editor.[50] The following year, the publication was named one of the country's top-10 magazines with under $2 million in annual revenue by the American Society of Business Publication Editors.[51][52] In February 2012, it published "Truth, Lies, and Afghanistan: How Military Leaders Have Let Us Down”[53] by Army Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, one of the first public criticisms of the War in Afghanistan by a serving military officer. The article drew praise from several U.S. lawmakers[54] and won Davis the 2012 Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling.[55] It drew national press coverage, including by the New York Times[54], Time,[56] and NPR.[57]

In 2013, Armed Forces Journal marked its 150th birthday. It also announced plans to cease print publication and become an online-only title.[1]

AFJ last published on April 29, 2014, under publisher Elaine Donnelly.[2] The website disappeared in mid-2015[58] but was restored, without update, in January 2016.[59]

Post-Gannett

[edit]

In 2015, Gannett spun off AFJ and the other former Army Times Publishing Company publications to Tegna. In March 2016, Tegna sold the renamed Sightline Media Group to Regent, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm controlled by investor Michael Reinstein.[60]

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Peniston, Bradley (2013-08-01). "Editor's note: The next 150 years". Armed Forces Journal. Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved 2014-08-11.
  2. ^ a b Ward, Dan (April 29, 2014). "Book excerpt: "F.I.R.E."". Armed Forces Journal. Archived from the original on November 30, 2014. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  3. ^ "Here's How Much the Tegna CEO Earned in 2015". www.bizjournals.com. Archived from the original on 2019-04-01. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
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  6. ^ a b "UNITED STATES ARMY AND NAVY JOURNAL. Vol. 2". The New York Times. October 16, 1865. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
  7. ^ a b c d Brown, Jerold E., ed. (2001). Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 30. ISBN 9780313293221. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  8. ^ Stewart, Richard W., ed. (2005). American Military History, Vol. 1: The United States Army and the Forging of a Nation, 1775–1917. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History. p. 311. Archived from the original on November 12, 2011. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
  9. ^ Lily Rothman (November 17, 2015). "The Original Reason the NRA Was Founded". Time. Time USA. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  10. ^ Mark A. Keefe (February 25, 2021). "The Birth of the NRA: Wingate, Church & The Leech Cup". American Rifleman. National Rifle Association of America. Archived from the original on July 25, 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  11. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). "Churchill, Winston" . Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
  12. ^ "Dinner to Col. Church" (PDF). The New York Times. January 20, 1903. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 22, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
  13. ^ Willard was apparently William's son, and the namesake of William's father: Clemens, Samuel L. (9 Feb 1870). "Letter: Samuel L. Clemens to Francis P. Church". Mark Twain Papers. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2019 – via California Digital Library.
  14. ^ Young, Robert J. (2000). Under Siege: Portraits Of Civilian Life In France During World War I. Berghahn Books. p. 179. ISBN 9781571811325. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
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  19. ^ Knox, Dudley (1922). The Eclipse of American Sea Power. New York City: J.J. Little & Ives Co. p. 170. ISBN 978-1148983004.
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  23. ^ "Army and Navy Journal Bequeathed By Col. O'Laughlin to Gridiron Club; Correspondents' Organization Will Vote on Accepting Trust – Proceeds Would Go to Charity, Journalistic Education". The New York Times. March 19, 1949. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
  24. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  25. ^ "Military Paper Willed to Club". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Chicago Daily News Service. March 19, 1949. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  26. ^ Eklund, Lawrence (April 8, 1949). "When Public Officials Sizzle". Milwaukee Journal. Archived from the original on January 24, 2013. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
  27. ^ "MILITARY JOURNAL SOLD; Editor and General Manager Buy It From Trustees". The New York Times. March 29, 1958. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
  28. ^ "SERVICE JOURNAL SOLD; Weekly Dating to Civil War to Keep Top Officials". The New York Times. January 5, 1962. Archived from the original on July 23, 2018. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
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  30. ^ "ROTC Journal". National Library of Australia. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2019. In October 1956, the Register had absorbed The ROTC Journal, a 10-issue-per-year magazine founded in 1949 and published in Brookhaven, Georgia.
  31. ^ Halloran, Richard (April 9, 1987). "DANIEL Z. HENKIN, TOP PRESS AIDE FOR PENTAGON IN THE VIETNAM ERA". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 19, 2015. Retrieved September 3, 2013.
  32. ^ a b Morrison, David C. (June 14, 1986). "Profiles in Influence; A Pentagon Chronicler Who Won't Cheerlead". National Journal.
  33. ^ a b c "For The Record: Ex-AFJ Editor Schemmer Dies". Defense News. October 20, 2003.
  34. ^ Turan, Kenneth (December 1, 1977). "Style: Magazine: Inflation, Even In the 'Big House'". The Washington Post.
  35. ^ The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, May 22, 1984. Transcript accessed July 17, 2012, via Lexis/Nexis.
  36. ^ a b c d "Armed Forces Publication Is Purchased". The Washington Post. April 11, 1988.
  37. ^ Wilson, David L. (December 10, 1988). "Washington's Movers and Shakers". National Journal.
  38. ^ "Military Magazine Bought". Chicago Tribune. April 2, 1988.
  39. ^ "Obituary: Benjamin F. Schemmer, military editor, 71". The Washington Times. October 23, 2003.
  40. ^ Carley, Eliza Newlin (October 3, 1992). "Washington's Movers and Shakers". National Journal.
  41. ^ "Army Times Publishing Co. buys McLean company". Associated Press. September 16, 2002.
  42. ^ Thomas, Donnelly (November 2005). "Echoes of 1863". Armed Forces Journal. Archived from the original on March 25, 2012. Retrieved September 5, 2011.
  43. ^ Walker, Karen (October 2006). "In This Issue". Armed Forces Journal. Archived from the original on March 25, 2012. Retrieved September 14, 2011.
  44. ^ Yingling, Paul (27 April 2007). "A Failure of Generalship". Armed Forces Journal. Archived from the original on 21 February 2024. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
  45. ^ Ricks, Thomas E. (27 April 2007). "Army Officer Accuses Generals of 'Intellectual and Moral Failures'". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 22 June 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
  46. ^ "US Military Says 3 Marines Killed in Anbar Province" Archived 2021-11-22 at the Wayback Machine, Voice of America News, 27 April 2007.
  47. ^ Kaplan, Fred (2007-08-26). "Challenging the Generals". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2021-03-14. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  48. ^ "Generals Need Checks and Balances Too". AUSA. 2017-06-07. Archived from the original on 2024-02-21. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  49. ^ Maass, Peter (November 1, 2018). "Tweet". Twitter.
  50. ^ Peniston, Bradley (October 2011). "In This Issue". Armed Forces Journal. Archived from the original on April 7, 2012. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  51. ^ ASBPE Staff (September 18, 2012). "ASBPE announces national, regional Azbee Award winners". American Society of Business Publication Editors. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  52. ^ "2012 ASBPE Awards of Excellence Azbee Awards – National" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-09-07. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
  53. ^ Davis, Daniel L. (2013-06-15). "Truth, Lies and Afghanistan: How Military Leaders Have Let Us Down". Armed Forces Journal. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  54. ^ a b Shane, Scott (2012-02-05). "In Afghan War, Officer Becomes a Whistle-Blower". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2024-01-27. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  55. ^ "2012 Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling". The Ridenhour Prizes. 2019-09-10. Archived from the original on September 10, 2019. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  56. ^ Thompson, Mark (2012-02-06). ""Truth, Lies and Afghanistan"". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Archived from the original on 2024-02-21. Retrieved 2024-02-21.
  57. ^ "What's The Truth About The War In Afghanistan?". NPR. February 9, 2012. Archived from the original on February 21, 2024. Retrieved February 21, 2024.
  58. ^ "404". Armed Forces Journal. Internet Archive. July 16, 2015. Archived from the original on August 6, 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2016. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  59. ^ "1930: In case you missed it". Armed Forces Journal. Internet Archive. August 9, 2014. Archived from the original on January 25, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  60. ^ "Global Private Equity Firm Regent Announces Launch of ARCHETYPE – Multi-Platform Media Accelerator Aimed to Transform Legacy Publication Brands". Cision PR Web. January 8, 2019. Archived from the original on February 5, 2023. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
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