Memphis Press-Scimitar


The Memphis Press-Scimitar was an afternoon newspaper based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company.
Created from a merger in 1926 between the Memphis Press and the Memphis News-Scimitar, the newspaper ceased publication in 1983. It was the main rival to The Commercial Appeal, also based in Memphis and owned by Scripps. At the time of its closure, the Press-Scimitar, had lost a third of its circulation in 10 years and was down to daily sales of 80,000 copies.
From 1909 to 1931, The Memphis Press was edited by founder Ross B. Young, a journalist from Ohio brought down by local business interests looking for a voice to speak to the stranglehold that E. H. "Boss" Crump had on city government, employment, and contracts.
From 1931 to 1962, The Press-Scimitar was edited by the crusading Edward J. Meeman, who later left a fortune to foster the study of environmental sciences.

In fiction

In John Grisham's novel The Client, the Memphis Press is fictionally presented as still existing and flourishing as a major Memphis paper into the 1990s.
In the 2004 movie The Ladykillers, during the basement scene where Tom Hanks character Professor Goldthwaite Higginson Dorr describes forming the crew for the heist, he references having posted an ad in the Memphis Scimitar which the would-be thieves responded to.
The 2013 Newberry Award winning novel "Paperboy" by former Press Scimitar copy editor Vince Vince Vawter has its main character working as a paper carrier delivering the Press Scimitar. A second novel "Copyboy" published in 2018, has the same character working in the paper's newsroom as a copyboy.