100 years ago: Fire leads to merger of Journal and World newspapers

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Feb. 20, 1911:

“JOURNAL-WORLD: The Combination. — Before [Saturday’s] fire was out the plan for a consolidation was sprung and for the first time received favorable consideration. The destruction of the physical property of the Journal opened the way for what the town has demanded.

“For the past five years the Journal has been owned by Mr. Brady and the World has been owned by Mr. Simons. Hereafter the two men will own an equal interest in the combined publication. A car of paper for an eight column publication has been ordered by telegraph and as soon as it is received the Journal-World will issue as an eight page paper. The combined publication will appeal to the people of Lawrence as fulfilling their desires and we will offer it as the best that two men who have spent twenty years in the newspaper business in Lawrence have to offer.

“The new office will be the best equipped newspaper office in the west. In addition to a new linotype there will be three new presses, a new bindery and the finest assortment of the latest faces of job type in the state. The office of publication will remain at 722 Mass. street, where the World has been published for the past ten years.”

“To disregard his enormous loss in Saturday’s disastrous fire and to erect an opera house which will be a final monument to his enduring energy as the town’s foremost citizen is the plan contemplated of J. D. Bowersock…. A modern concrete and brick building will extend clear to the alley. The first floor will be of a reinforced concrete and the entire building will be absolutely fireproof.”