The Marietta Daily Journal traces its roots to 1866, when it was first printed by Robert McAlpin Goodman as “The Marietta Journal” on a hand press left behind by Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s army after the Civil War. The newspaper grew steadily along with the city and converted from a weekly to a daily in October 1935 during the depths of the Great Depression — an act of faith and confidence in the community’s prospects.
Meanwhile, a competing newspaper, The Cobb County Times, was first published in 1916 by Otis A. Brumby Sr., whose uncle had been commandant of the Georgia Military Institute in Marietta prior to the Civil War, and whose father and uncle were co-founders of the famed Brumby Chair Co.
The inaugural issue of the Times declared, “First, last and always, we intend to boost our county and our towns, and we desire our readers to feel free at all times to criticize the newspaper.”
The Times acquired the Journal in 1951 and moved into its present home on Fairground Street in 1970. It launched the Northside Neighbor weekly newspaper in 1968 and soon followed with other Neighbor newspapers in most of the metro area’s suburban counties under the leadership of present publisher Otis A. Brumby Jr.
Today Times-Journal Inc., and its 150-plus employees publish two dailies (the MDJ and the Cherokee Tribune), 23 Neighbor community newspapers, and four monthly magazines, including Cobb Life, in 10 counties (Bartow, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Henry and Paulding).
And the company is still owned and operated by the Brumby family, now including a third generation, general manager Otis Brumby III having worked alongside his father since 2006.
The MDJ aims to report the news aggressively, but with candor, discretion and fairness. And to paraphrase the words of the first Otis Brumby back in 1916, we welcome our readers to feel free at all times to criticize us — and support us.