Seattle Union Record

Harry Ault was instrumental in the temporary success of the Union Record.[5] Prior to working as the editor of the Union Record Ault worked for various other newspaper organizations. As a child, he worked as a newsboy selling the Kentucky Post.[5] At 11 he started the Amateur's Friend and was selling the Weekly People the next year.[5] He would later publish The Young Socialist and at age 19 became the editor of The Socialist.[5] Nine years later, in 1912, he began to work as the editor of the Union Record which had a circulation of 3,000.[5]

The Union Record went daily on the afternoon of April 24, 1918, launching with a daily circulation 40,000 — a number equal to about 90% of the trade unionists in the city of Seattle;[6] this made it the country's first daily labor newspaper.[7] The paper obtained wire service from United Press International, posting $100,000 security with the firm in the form of bonds to guarantee the costs occurring through telegraphic news reporting.[6] Economical production was made possible by the company's ownership of three fast web printing presses.[6]

From its humble origins with a print run of 3,000 copies, circulation of the Union Record would ultimately peak at the 80,000 mark.[5]

The paper would play a large role in organizing and supporting the Seattle General Strike of 1919.[2]

The name was revived in November 2000 as the name of an online newspaper run by the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild when journalists from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Seattle Times went on strike.[8][9] It ceased publication in January 2001.[10]

• Harry E.B. Ault papers. 1899–1956. 5.46 cubic feet (13 boxes). At University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections.