page_title: The Register-Guard
section_title: Post-merger history
hierarchical_section_title: The Register-Guard / Post-merger history
caption_attribution_description: English: Entrance to w:The Register-Guard in w:Eugene, Oregon.
context_page_description: The Register-Guard is a daily newspaper in the northwestern United States, published in Eugene, Oregon. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the Eugene Daily Guard and the Morning Register. The paper serves the Eugene-Springfield area, as well as the Oregon Coast, Umpqua River valley, and surrounding areas. As of 2016, it has a circulation of around 43,000 Monday through Friday, around 47,000 on Saturday, and a little under 50,000 on Sunday.
  The newspaper has been owned by The Gannett Company since Gannett's 2019 merger with GateHouse Media. It had been sold to Gate House in 2018. From 1927 to 2018, it was owned by the Baker family of Eugene, and members of the family served as both editor and publisher for nearly all that time period. It is Oregon's second-largest daily newspaper and, until its 2018 sale to GateHouse, was one of the few medium-sized family newspapers left in the United States.
context_section_description: In 1953, Tugman was one of four editors in the country to sign a declaration opposing Senator Joseph McCarthy's questioning of New York Post editor James Wechsler in closed Senate hearings. Eugene S. Pulliam of The Indianapolis Star, J. R. Wiggins of The Washington Post, and Herbert Brucker of The Hartford Courant were the other editors to sign the declaration, calling Senator McCarthy's actions "a peril to American freedom."
  Alton F. "Bunky" Baker, Jr., son of Alton F. Baker, Sr., inherited the newspaper in 1961 and later passed it on to his brother Edwin. In the late 1980s, it was handed down to Alton F. "Tony" Baker III, who remained the paper's editor and publisher for more than 28 years, until 2015. 
  It was an afternoon paper on weekdays until 1983; the last evening edition was on Friday, September 9, and it dropped "Eugene" from its title. Saturday editions shifted to mornings a dozen years earlier in 1971, the last afternoon edition was July 17.
  In August 1996, a photographer and reporter from the paper were arrested by the United States Forest Service for trespassing at the site of a timber protest in a national forest. The Register-Guard responded by suing the Forest Service for violating the First Amendment freedom of the press. The criminal charges were later dropped and the civil suit was settled out of court.
  Originally located in downtown Eugene, the paper moved to its current location in northeast Eugene in January 1998. The former Register-Guard building was leased by the University of Oregon and renamed the Baker Downtown Center for the Baker family. The building houses the university's printing and mailing facility, archives, and continuing education program, as well as the Oregon Career Information System.
  In 2000, the company began negotiations with the employee’s union for a new contract, and during negotiations banned the use of the company email system by the union. This led to an unfair labor practice charge against the newspaper, with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling for the paper in December 2007 that employers can ban employees' pro-union emails from the company email system. The NLRB reconsidered the decision on emails on June 26, 2011, under a remand for reconsideration by the United States Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. Upon review, the NLRB agreed with the Court that the R-G violated union members' rights by changing rules. The new decision allowed Register-Guard employees to send union-related emails without restrictions. On Dec. 27, 2014, the NLRB overturned the 2007 ruling with Purple Communications, Inc., which gave union members the right to send union emails during non-work time.
  In the weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the newspaper saw a 1.6% increase in paper sales. In 2006, the paper received protests regarding its policy against including birth announcements from same-sex couples.  It was reported that managing editor Dave Baker was very helpful when same-sex couples first complained "until he talked to Alton Baker [III], and then he stopped returning our phone calls." In November 2008, the Register-Guard finally changed its policy and printed a birth announcement featuring names of both the child's female parents.
  In 2003, the newspaper reduced the width of the printing to 12.5 inches (320 mm) to reduce costs, and further shrank the paper to 11 inches (280 mm) in 2009.
  In 2009, two separate layoffs reduced the newspaper's staff by the equivalent of 41 positions; by August 2009, it had 305 full- and part-time employees.  The company's management blamed the layoffs on the "lousy economy" and advertising revenues that were 16% below projections in May and about 25% for June, July, and the first half of August.
  In May 2015, Tony Baker stepped down as the Register-Guard's editor and publisher, after 28 years, making the end of an 88-year span in which someone from the Baker family had headed the paper.  He was succeeded as editor and publisher by N. Christian Anderson III, who had been publisher of The Oregonian since 2009 and president of the Oreg
caption: Company headquarters entrance
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