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Block Communications history
Block Communications company history timeline
Paul Block emigrated from Germany to upstate New York in 1885, and began in the newspaper business as a young man in Elmira, NY, and later in New York City.
In 1895 he moved to New York City and began working as a so-called publisher's special representative for The Richardson Company.
In 1900, he left a secure job to form his own ad rep firm which sold national advertising for client newspapers.
He continued to perform magnificently as a salesman, and in 1903, publishing trade journal Editor & Publisher did a feature on him, referring to him as one of the nation's premier newspapermen.
While this business thrived and expanded, Block built up the two magazines he served as director of advertising for. It is not known who started the magazine before Block took over, but already by 1907, when it was about a year old, it had a circulation of nearly two million customers.
Starting to Publish Newspapers in 1916
He bought the Newark Star-Eagle in 1916.
In 1921 Block acquired the Duluth Herald, of Duluth, Minnesota.
By 1927 he was publisher of 11 newspapers located in such cities as New York City, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, and Memphis.
While Block had ostensibly owned the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette since 1927, ten years later he bought it from Hearst for approximately $2.5 million, meaning he bought out his silent partner.
By the middle of the Depression, in 1936, Block owned only the Toledo Blade, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Newark Star-Eagle, and two Milwaukee papers which again were presumably really Hearst's properties.
1941 Paul Block dies; advertising firm is sold and media holdings pass to sons William and Paul, Jr.
The Post-Gazette bought a rival paper, the formerly Hearst-owned Sun-Telegraph, in 1960.
In Toledo, the company went in with a local cable company to form a new entity, Buckeye Cablevision, in 1965, at the dawn of the cable television era.
The company bought another television station, WDRB, in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1984, and the next year bought a Boise, Idaho station, KTRV.
Post-Gazette Purchase of Press in 1992
The paper went back on sale in January 1993, now the reigning paper in the Pittsburgh market.
By 2002, Block Communications carried heavy debt, both from its investments in its plants and its obligations to retired employees.
The Blade had made a splash in 2004, winning a Pulitzer Prize for a series of stories about a Special Forces unit that had committed atrocities during the Vietnam War and gone unreproved for nearly 30 years.
2006 Company hints its newspaper properties might be sold.
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Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Block Communications, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Block Communications. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Block Communications. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Block Communications. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Block Communications and its employees or that of Zippia.
Block Communications may also be known as or be related to BLOCK COMMUNICATIONS INC, Block Communications, Block Communications Inc, Block Communications, Inc and Block Communications, Inc.