The E.W. Scripps Company

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The E.W. Scripps Company

1100 Central Trust Tower
Cincinnati, Ohio 45201
U.S.A.
(513) 977-3000
Fax: (513) 977-3721

Public Company
Incorporated: 1922
Employees: 10,000
Sales: $1.30 billion
Stock Exchange: New York

The E.W. Scripps Company is a diversified media corporation known primarily for its newspapers, which form the ninth-largest newspaper chain, in terms of circulation, in the United States. The company also operates television and radio stations and cable television systems, and licenses cartoon characters. The E.W. Scripps Company was founded by Edward Willis (E.W.) Scripps, who in 1878 began building one of the first newspaper chains in the United States. In 1922 Scripps incorporated his news organizations and established a trust ensuring family control of his newspaper empire for as long as legally possible. The company diversified into radio station operations in 1935, television stations in 1947, and cable television in 1980. Following more than a century of private ownership, the organization made its first public stock offering in 1988 and since then has focused on updating existing newspaper operations while broadening its cable operations to ease dependency on advertising revenue. After the death of E.W. Scripps’s four eldest grandchildren the Scripps trust will be terminated and the company’s stock divided among 28 great-grandchildren.

Edward Willis Scripps began his newspaper career in the early 1870s while serving an apprenticeship at Michigan’s Detroit News, under his older half-brother James Scripps. In 1878 after working his way up the ladder in Detroit, the 24-year old E.W. Scripps secured the financial backing of his half-brothers James and George Scripps and his half-sister Ellen Scripps and founded his first newspaper, in Cleveland, Ohio, The Penny Press.

From this first paper, started during an intense period of industrial development, E.W. Scripps fashioned a personally controlled chain of low-priced, well-written newspapers to champion the welfare of the growing working class. That chain began to grow in 1883, when E.W. Scripps acquired controlling interest in the Cincinnati, Ohio-based Penny Post, later renamed The Cincinnati Post, from James Scripps. A business manager, Milton A. McRae, was hired to run the Post, and in 1890 he and E.W. Scripps agreed to establish the Scripps-McRae League to manage the Scripps newspapers.

Under a profit-pooling arrangement established by Scripps and McRae, Scripps received two-thirds of the earnings from the league and was allowed to follow his own interests, while McRae received one-third of the profits and was charged with managing the league’s newspapers. To expand the league, Scripps and McRae chose growing industrial cities where there was little competition. Then ambitious editors and business managers were hired to start newspapers there. If the paper were successful the editor and manager could earn up to 49% of the stock.

This formula was put in practice in 1890, when The Kentucky Post was established across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. That same year Scripps acquired some land near San Diego, California, to build a ranch, and while living there in semi-retirement he became interested in developing west coast newspapers. In 1892 he purchased two San Diego newspapers and merged them to form The San Diego Sun and begin a Pacific coast group of newspapers of which he was owner.

In 1894 George Scripps pooled his interest in the family newspapers with Scripps-McRae, giving the league a controlling interest in the Cleveland Press and in The Chronicle, a St. Louis-based newspaper, in addition to its newspapers in Cincinnati and Kentucky. The profit pool was redivided in 1895 to include two-fifths each for E.W. and George Scripps and one-fifth for McRae. At that time. E.W. Scripps was named to serve as president of each of the newspapers, which would be run as separate companies, and McRae was named to serve as secretary and business manager of each newspaper.

In 1895 E.W. Scripps started his first newly created west coast paper, the Los Angeles Record, which was added to his Pacific coast group. Four years later, the Washington-based Seattle Star was formed and it too joined the Pacific coast fold. Scripps-McRae acquired the Kansas City World in Missouri in 1896 and three years later founded the Akron Press in Ohio.

In 1897 seeking an alternative to the Associated Press wire service, which provided news primarily to morning papers, and to United Press, which was in trouble, E.W. Scripps founded a new wire service, the Scripps-McRae Press Association, for the league’s afternoon daily newspapers. Two years later, the Scripps News Association was formed as a wire service for non-Scripps newspapers.

By 1900 E.W. Scripps was operating nine daily newspapers, six through the league and three on the West Coast. After George Scripps’s death in 1900 and a three-year court battle between E.W. and James Scripps, E.W. Scrips gained majority control of all the family’s newspapers outside of Detroit.

In 1902 E.W. Scripps started the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), the first specialized news and feature service in the United States. It was initially designed to provide a complete line of feature columns and news stories for only the Scripps-McRae newspapers, but the NEA soon expanded its clientele to include other newspapers.

After Scripps gained control of George Scripps’s holdings in 1903, expansion efforts were stepped up. The league’s first moves were in Ohio, where two Toledo newspapers were purchased in 1903 and merged to form the Toledo News-Bee, and the Columbus Citizen was acquired a year later. While the league was growing in the Midwest, the Pacific coast group was also expanding, establishing the San Francisco News and the Tacoma Times in 1903, the Sacramento Star in 1904, and the Fresno Tribune in 1905. In 1905 E.W. Scripps also began setting aside stock for employees to purchase.

The year 1906 was bountiful for Scripps start-up ventures, which included the establishment of five newspapers by a newly created newspaper chain known as the Harper Group, after the attorney J.C. Harper. In 1906 the Harper Group established the Evansville Press and the Terre Haute Post in Indiana, the Pueblo Sun and the Denver Express in Colorado, and the Dallas Dispatch in Texas. That same year the Pacific coast group founded the Portland News in Oregon, while Scripps-McRae established the Oklahoma News, and the Nashville Times in Tennessee. The Harper Group added the Memphis Press in Tennessee in 1907.

In 1906 E.W. Scripps purchased the Publishers Press Association and a year later merged it with the Scripps-McRae Press Association and the Scripps News Association, to form United Press Association (UPA). The following year he also formed the Newspaper Supply Company to handle central accounting and national advertising.

In 1908 E.W. Scripps announced he would retire and hand over the chairmanship of all his news organizations to his 22-year-old son, James Scripps. That same year, two financially troubled Missouri newspapers, The Chronicle in St. Louis and the Kansas City World, were disposed of. The Chronicle was sold, and the World was simply discontinued. Scripps’s greatest difficulties during the early 1900s, however, were encountered on the West Coast, where start-ups in Fresno, Berkeley, and Oakland, California, each lasted less than eight years.

By 1911 the Scripps-McRae League included 18 daily newspapers in Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Iowa, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas; the Pacific coast group had 10 newspapers, mostly in California; and the Harper Group had 7 newspapers, including the Houston Press, which was founded that year.

E.W. Scripps emerged from retirement in 1911, and during the next two years established two newspapers without advertising. These two ad-less publications were the Chicago Daybook, established in 1911, with poet Carl Sandburg as chief reporter, and the Philadelphia News-Post, founded in 1912. The News-Post was discontinued after two years, but the Daybook grew to a circulation of 25,000 and was $500 a month away from breaking even when skyrocketing newsprint prices resulting from World War I forced its closure in 1917.

By 1918 the business disagreements between Scripps and his son James Scripps had become irreconcilable, and E.W. named another son, Robert Paine Scripps, chief executive and editor-in-chief of all news operations. In 1920 E.W. and James Scripps broke all ties, and Roy H. Howard, the UPA editor-in-chief, was named to run the business side of operations.

James Scripps died in 1921, and his wife withdrew five west coast papers and the Dallas Dispatch to form the Scripps-Canfield League. The Scripps-McRae League moved quickly to offset these losses and during the next three years established seven newspapers. During the same period the latter league acquired the Youngstown Telegram in Ohio, the Indianapolis Times in Indiana, the New Mexico State Tribune and the Pittsburgh Press in Pennsylvania.

Additional news services were established during the early 1920s, including the United Features Syndicate, a distributor of weekly comics and news columns; United Newspictures, a news-photography service and forerunner of Acme Newspictures; and the Science Service, an authoritative supplemental science news and feature syndicate.

In 1922 all of E.W. Scripps’s newspaper groups and news operations were incorporated as The E.W. Scripps Company, with headquarters in Cleveland. Howard was named chairman and chief executive officer of the corporation, and Robert Scripps co-chairman with Howard of a two-man editorial board. That same year the newspaper chain adopted the name Scripps-Howard League. E.W. Scripps also established a trust in 1922, which at his death would leave control of all his news organizations to his son Robert. Provisions were also made for all family members, except the heirs of James Scripps.

Following incorporation, Scripps-Howard purchased competing newspapers in Knoxville and Memphis, Tennessee; El Paso, Texas; Akron, Ohio; and Denver, Colorado and merged them with their existing publications in those cities. On the loss side during the 1920s, Scripps-Howard sold its Des Moines, Iowa, and Terre Haute, Indiana, newspapers and ceased publication of two others.

E.W. Scripps died in 1926, leaving the trust in the hands of Robert Scripps and the business management to Roy Howard, who remained chairman and chief executive officer. In 1927 Scripps-Howard acquired The New York Telegram, which became the New York World-Telegram four years later, after Howard negotiated the purchase of The World. The Buffalo Times of Buffalo, New York, was acquired in 1929.

By 1930 The E.W. Scripps Company owned 25 daily newspapers. During the next decade Roy Howard came to dominate editorial as well as business policies, and in the early 1930s he named William Waller Hawkins, who had been Howard’s successor as editor at UPA, chairman of the board.

Following the Great Depression the nation’s newspaper industry suffered from attrition, and between 1934 and 1939 Scripps-Howard sold newspapers to its competition in Baltimore, Maryland; Youngstown, Toledo, and Akron, Ohio; and San Diego, California; and ceased publication of its Oklahoma newspaper. During the same period the Scripps-Howard newspapers in Evansville, Indiana; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and El Paso, Texas, combined business operations with competitors to reduce overhead costs.

In 1935 The E.W. Scripps Company made its first diversification move and purchased a Cincinnati radio station, adopting the call letters WCPO. A subsidiary, Continental Radio, was established and changed its name to Scripps-Howard Radio, Inc. two years later. In 1936 the Memphis radio station WMC was acquired, and that same year Scripps-Howard bought out its one remaining competing daily newspaper in Memphis, The Commercial Appeal.

Robert Scripps died in 1938. Hawkins and George B. Parker, the editor-in-chief of the Scripps-Howard newspapers, became temporary trustees of the company along with Howard, pending the time when Robert Scripps’s sons reached the age of 25. Under the new regime, the Scripps-Howard newspapers took on a more conservative tone. By the late 1930s Scripps-Howard newspapers had broken with the policies of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, leading to the departure of some of the chain’s more liberal columnists.

During World War II John H. Sorrells, executive editor of Scripps-Howard newspapers, and Nat R. Howard, the editor of the Cleveland News, headed up the office of press relations of the U.S. Office of Censorship. The well-known World War II reporter, Scripps-Howard columnist Ernie Pyle, won a national reputation and a Pulitzer Prize for his wartime writings. Pyle was killed in Okinawa in 1945, after being hit by a Japanese sniper.

After World War II Robert Scripps’s sons, Robert Paine Scripps Jr., Charles E. Scripps, and Edward W. Scripps, became trustees of the trust. The company started diversification into television-station operation in 1947, establishing the ABC-affiliate WEWS-TV in Cleveland. In 1948 The E.W. Scripps Company expanded its Memphis media dominance by putting the NBC-affiliate WMC-TV on the air. In 1949 a new CBS affiliate started by Scripps, WCPO-TV, began operations in Cincinnati.

In 1950 Scripps-Howard purchased the Hearst Corporation’s New York Sun and merged it with the World-Telegram to form the New York World Telegram & Sun. The same year Charles M. Schultz began to write and draw the “Peanuts” comic strip, which was syndicated through United Features.

Hawkins and Howard retired as chairman and president, respectively, in 1952. The following year Charles E. Scripps was named chairman, and Roy Howard’s son, Jack R. Howard, was named president and chief executive officer. Roy Howard remained head of the New York World Telegram & Sun until his death in 1964.

Beginning in 1956 The E.W. Scripps Company began acquiring stock and building up majority control of the Cincinnati Enquirer, which competed with its Cincinnati Post. The company also bought another Cincinnati newspaper, the Cincinnati Times-Star, in 1958 and merged it into the Post.

In 1958 UPA absorbed International News Service and became known as United Press International (UPI). The following year the Scripps-Howard and Hearst chains combined their evening San Francisco newspapers into the jointly owned San Francisco News-Call Bulletin. Three years later, Hearst acquired complete control of the newspaper.

In 1960 Scripps-Howard purchased the Cleveland News and merged it into the Cleveland Press. The following year the E.W. Scripps company entered the growing Florida market and acquired the NBC-affiliate WPTV in West Palm Beach. Scripps-Howard Radio was renamed Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Company in 1961, and two years later went public. Two Florida newspapers, the Stuart News and the Hollywood Sun-Tattler, that were acquired in 1965.

The Houston Press, struggling against two competitors was sold in 1964, and the following year the 78-year-old Indianapolis Times also bowed out to two competitors. Both had been formed under E.W. Scripps’s reign.

In 1966 Scripps-Howard, the Hearst Corporation, and Whitney Communications Corporation formed a joint venture company, the World Journal Tribune Inc., to keep their respective New York news operations alive. Under the agreement, Whitney’s Herald Tribune. continued publishing in the morning, while Scripps-Howard and Hearst newspapers published a combined afternoon newspaper, the New York Journal-American. All three companies combined to publish a Sunday newspaper, the New York World Journal & Tribune. After numerous setbacks, the joint venture was suspended in 1967, and the newspapers all folded.

The 1970s brought both arrivals and departures for E.W. Scripps. The Tulsa, Oklahoma, television station KTEW, an NBC affiliate renamed KJRH, and the San Juan Star, a California-based, English-language daily newspaper for Puerto Ricans, were acquired in 1970. Three years later another California newspaper, the Fullerton Daily News Tribune, was acquired.

Acting under a U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit ruling, Scripps-Howard in 1971 divested itself of its interests in the Cincinnati Enquirer. One year later the 51-year-old Washington Daily News was sold to a competitor, and in 1975 competition forced the closure of the Fort Worth Press.

Jack Howard retired in 1976 and Edward W. Estlow was named his successor, becoming the company’s first president and chief executive officer chosen from outside the Scripps and Howard families. The following year the E.W. Scripps corporate headquarters was moved from Cleveland to Cincinnati, and soon afterwards the financially troubled Cincinnati Post struck a deal with the competing Enquirer to combine business, advertising, and production operations while keeping editorial matters separate.

In 1977 Scripps-Howard Broadcasting acquired KBMA, a Kansas City UHF television station which later became a Fox Broadcasting affiliate. The following year Scripps-Howard consolidated the NEA and the United Features Syndicate under the trade name United Media Enterprises, and the cartoon “Garfield” was added to its line.

During the late-1970s, with Estlow at the helm, E.W. Scripps turned its attention toward weekly newspapers. In 1977 Scripps-Howard acquired its first two weeklies, and the following year the chain started its first weekly newspaper. In 1978, in a leap into the California weekly market, 15 Los Angeles-area weekly and semi-weekly newspapers were acquired, and before the decade had ended five Kentucky weeklies, including four in the Louisville area, were added.

By 1979 Scripps-Howard had 23 weekly newspapers and 16 daily newspapers, with half of those dailies functioning under joint-operating agreements. With a decade of debt dragging it down, the Cleveland Press, Scripps 102-year-old flagship newspaper, was sold in 1980. At about the same time, the company announced that the financially troubled UPI was also on the block.

With financial uncertainty surrounding some of its larger news operations, E.W. Scripps increased its diversification in 1980 by acquiring Cordovan Corporation, publisher of business periodicals, trade magazines, and books. That same year Scripps-Howard Broadcasting entered the cable television business by acquiring systems in Michigan, Connecticut, and Florida.

UPI was sold for $75 million in 1982, the same year that E.W. Scripps sold its Louisville weekly newspapers and its Knoxville radio station. About the same time, Scripps-Howard Broadcasting purchased a Portland, Oregon, radio station and four Colorado cable television systems. In 1985 E.W. Scripps furthered its expansion into cable systems and the western-states market. The Phoenix, Arizona, television station, KNXV, a Fox affiliate, was acquired, and $135 million was committed to construction of a new cable system in Sacramento, California.

Lawrence A. Leser, a former executive vice president, was named president and chief executive in 1985, succeeding Estlow who remained on the board. A three-year restructuring process followed that emphasized three prime business areas: publishing, broadcasting, and cable television.

Between 1986 and 1987 the company committed $819 million to acquisitions in its three core areas. In 1986 it acquired ABC’s affiliate television stations in Detroit and in Tampa, Florida, and enlarged its newspaper chains through the acquisition of the John P. Scripps newspaper group, a chain of seven small California dailies founded by one of the E.W. Scripps grandsons. That same year E.W. Scripps acquired Indiana’s Evansville Daily News and the Morning News of Naples, Florida. Seven small cable television systems in the southeastern states were also acquired in 1987.

During restructuring, the Columbus Citizen-Journal was discontinued after several failed attempts to sell the financially troubled Ohio paper. E.W. Scripps also sold some of its peripheral businesses, including more than half of its non-daily newspapers, its Connecticut joint-venture cable operations, and its videotape publishing business.

In 1987 the restructuring process was completed, and The E.W. Scripps Company was reorganized and incorporated in Delaware as a holding company, with most of its assets transferred to a new Ohio corporation, Scripps-Howard, Inc. The following year E.W. Scripps announced it would go public to reduce debt incurred through recent acquisitions, and a class of common stock, representing an 11% economic interest in the company with voting rights for one-third of the company’s directors, was sold.

Following its public offering, E.W. Scripps began selling unprofitable operations, creating and acquiring new businesses not dependent on advertising revenues, and updating its existing newspaper operations. In 1988 the Sun-Tattler and some of the company’s business journals were sold. The same year several cable television systems were acquired in western and southeastern states, and Scripps Howard Productions was formed to develop, produce, and market television programs. The company also announced it would spend $25 million to give the Evansville Courier a new production facility.

In 1988 E.W. Scripps also began looking for international markets for its cartoon-character licensing business. An Asian office was established in Tokyo in 1988 and a European office in Amsterdam in 1989. Also in 1989, E.W. Scripps sold its remaining interests in business journals and acquired Sundance Publishing, a supplemental-education-materials publisher. Newspaper-production-plant improvements continued that year with building projects in Florida and California.

E.W. Scripps Company entered the 1990s committed to continued expansion and improvement of its cable operations. Company plans also included rebuilding existing cable systems to expand channel offerings, and updating newspaper production facilities, as illustrated by a $135 million project announced in 1990 for Scripps’s largest newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News. In 1991, Scripps bought WMAR-TV in Baltimore for $125 million.

Principal Subsidiaries

Birmingham Post Company; Channel 7 of Detroit, Inc. (80.4%); Collier County Publishing Company; Evansville Courier Company, Inc. (88.4%); Denver Publishing Company; EWS and LR Cable; Herald Post Publishing Company; John P. Scripps Newspapers, Inc.; Knoxville News Sentinel Company (97.3%); Memphis Publishing Company (90.5%); New Mexico State Tribune Company; Pittsburgh Press Company; San Juan Star Company; Scripps Howard Broadcasting Company (80.4%); Scripps Howard Cable Company (80.4%); Scripps Howard Cable Company of Sacramento (76.4%); Scripps Howard, Inc.; Stuart News Company; Tampa Bay Television Company (80.4%); United Features Syndicate, Inc.