You have it right, mostly. The Milwaukeee Journal was good, one of the best in its day.-- I read the Green Sheet starting when I was three. Loved it. And then read the rest of the newspaper when I was a little older, say 6 tthrough 15, when I left high school. Then I went to Madison, and I read the NYT. The “Urinal Sentinel” was always crap. Here’s a little history, from WIKI (not that they are authoritative, just that it’s an introduction):
The Journal was started in 1882, in competition with four other English-language, four German- and two Polish-language dailies. Its first editor was Lucius Nieman, who wanted to steer the paper away from the political biases and yellow journalism common at the time. Nieman was an innovative and crusading editor. The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service was awarded to The Milwaukee Journal in 1919 “for its strong campaign for Americanism in a constituency where foreign elements made such a policy hazardous from a business point of view”.[ citation needed ]
The Journal followed the Sentinel into broadcasting. The Journal purchased radio station WKAF in 1927, changing its call letters to WTMJ. It later launched an FM station, W9XAO, in 1940; it was later called W55M, WMFM, WTMJ-FM, WKTI-FM, WLWK-FM, and, now, WKTI. WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee’s first television station, went on the air in 1947.[ citation needed ]
Nieman’s successor, Harry J. Grant, introduced an employee stock purchase plan in 1937 and, as a result, 98% of Journal stock was held by its employees. A small bloc of Journal stock was given to Harvard College, and funded the Nieman Fellowship program for promising journalists.[ citation needed ]
Competing with two raucous Hearst papers filled with gossip, features and comic strips, Harry Grant took a more sober approach to news presentation, emphasizing local news. During his years as editor and publisher, the Journal received several Pulitzers and other awards from its peers; it was under Grant that the Journal gained a reputation as a leading voice of moderate midwestern liberalism. During the 1950s, the Journal was outspoken in its opposition to Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy and his search for communist influence in government, which perhaps inflated the Journal 's reputation for liberalism.[ citation needed ]
At its circulation peak in the early 1960s, the Journal sold about 400,000 copies daily and 600,000 on Sunday. The Journal was a Monday-through-Saturday afternoon broadsheet, containing its distinctive Green Sheet, also publishing Sunday mornings. Though circulation had declined from its peak, it still held a rare position for an afternoon paper, dominating its market up until 1995, when the Journal and Sentinel were consolidated.