The Morning Call
The Morning Call is a daily newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1883, it is the second-longest continuously published newspaper in the Lehigh Valley, after The Express-Times. The newspaper is owned by Alden Global Capital, a New York City–based hedge fund.
For the similarly-named defunct New Jersey newspaper, see The Paterson Morning Call.Type
Controversies[edit]
Rape and sexual assault allegations against columnist[edit]
In 2020, Paul Carpenter, a Morning Call bureau chief and Morning Call columnist for 25 years from 1984 until 2019, was sued by his daughter, who charged Carpenter with "repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting" her for a decade from age nine until age 19.[6][7]
Rent arrears and headquarters closure[edit]
In 2020, the landlord for The Morning Call's offices at 101 N. Sixth Street in Center City Allentown sued The Morning Call, alleging it had failed to pay rent for the headquarters for four consecutive months in April, May, June, and again in July 2020.[8]
On August 12, 2020, the newspaper's interim general manager Timothy Thomas sent an email to employees, announcing that The Morning Call was permanently closing its headquarters, which the newspaper had maintained for a century since 1920, as it searched "for ways to save money as advertising revenue dwindled." The newspaper's roughly 100 employees were asked in the email to "retrieve personal items from the office by September 15," the newspaper reported.[9]