Congressional Quarterly
Congressional Quarterly, or CQ, is an American publication that is part of the privately owned publishing company CQ Roll Call, which covers the United States Congress. CQ was formerly acquired by the U.K.-based Economist Group and combined with Roll Call to form CQ Roll Call in 2009.
History
20th century
CQ was founded in 1945 by Nelson Poynter and his wife, Henrietta Poynter, to provide a link between local newspapers and the complex politics within Washington, D.C.Thomas N. Schroth, managing editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, was elected in October 1955 as executive editor and vice president. Schroth built the publication's impartial coverage, with annual revenue growth from $150,000 when he started to $1.8 million. In addition to adding a book division, Schroth added many staff members who achieved future journalistic success, including David S. Broder, Neal R. Peirce, and Elizabeth Drew. He was fired from Congressional Quarterly in 1969 after festering disagreements with Poynter over editorial policy at the publication, and Schroth's efforts to advocate "more imaginative ways of doing things" reached a boil.
In 1965, Poynter summed up his reasons for founding CQ: "The federal government will never set up an adequate agency to check on itself, and a foundation is too timid for that. So it had to be a private enterprise beholden to its clients." Despite its name, CQ was published quarterly for only one year. Demand drove more frequent updates, first weekly, then daily. CQ was also an early leader in delivering information on a real-time basis, starting with a dial-up service in 1984. Its website dominates the online legislative tracking information market and has been nominated for several awards. CQ has since launched several web-only newsletters with a greater focus on particular areas, including CQ Homeland Security, CQ BudgetTracker, and CQ HealthBeat.
21st century
In 2005, CQIn May 2008, CQ Press was purchased by SAGE Publishing. Although it retains the name "CQ Press", CQ Press is no longer an affiliate of Congressional Quarterly.
Until 2009, CQ was owned by the Times Publishing Company of St. Petersburg, Florida, publisher of the Tampa Bay Times and other publications. The Times Publishing Company is, in turn, owned by the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists founded by Nelson Poynter. The Economist Group acquired CQ in 2009 and combined it with Roll Call; the terms of the deal were not disclosed.
In July 2018, a deal was announced for CQ Roll Call to be acquired by FiscalNote.