KRIS 6 News history

Founded in 1878 by entrepreneurial journalist E.W. Scripps, our company has a long and proud legacy of innovation and an unwavering commitment to journalism.

In 1883, E.W. acquires control of the Cincinnati Penny Post from his brother James, later renaming it the Cincinnati Post.

Also in 1890 E.W. Scripps entered into a partnership with his business manager, Milton McRae; the two called their newspaper company the Scripps-McRae League.

By the turn of the 19th century, E.W. Scripps eyes expansion opportunities out west and launches or acquires newspapers as far west as San Diego, where he begins printing the San Diego Sun in 1892.

In 1894 George Scripps joined Scripps-McRae.

The profit pool was redivided in 1895 to include two-fifths each for E.W. and George Scripps and one-fifth for McRae.

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.

In 1900 George Scripps died, leaving his stock to E.W. James E. Scripps contested the will, however, and James E. and E.W. settled out of court.

In 1902 Scripps started the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), a service for exchanging and distributing illustrations, cartoons, editorials, and articles on such specialized subjects as sports and fashion.

After Scripps gained control of George Scripps’s holdings in 1903, expansion efforts were stepped up.

In 1905 E.W. Scripps also began setting aside stock for employees to purchase.

In 1906 Scripps entered another period of expansion, buying or starting papers in Denver and Pueblo, Colorado; Evansville and Terre Haute, Indiana; Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; Dallas, Texas; and Oklahoma.

Instead, in 1907 he creates United Press, later known as United Press International or UPI, to serve anyone who could afford a printing press, including his own toughest competitors.

In 1908 E.W. Scripps retired from active management, appointing his son James G. Scripps chairman of the board.

E.W. Scripps emerged from retirement in 1911, and during the next two years established two newspapers without advertising.

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.

The expanding Scripps newspaper empire introduces its first logo and motto in the 1920s.

He made Roy Howard chairman and business director in 1921.

1922: Company changes name to E.W. Scripps Co.; the E.W. Scripps Trust is created.

Sales for 1925 came to about $28 million.

In 1926 the Denver-based Rocky Mountain News and Times were bought.

In May 1927, the company adds the lighthouse emblem to its logo.

The Buffalo Times of Buffalo, New York, was acquired in 1929.

By 1930 The E.W. Scripps Company owned 25 daily newspapers.

Cochran, Negley D., E.W. Scripps, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1933.

In 1936 Howard gave up his position as chairman of the chain and became president.

Robert Scripps died in 1938.

1940: Scripps takes over the National Spelling Bee from a Louisville, Kentucky, newspaper.

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.

The following year, WMC-TV goes on the air in Memphis, while WCPO-TV transmits its first broadcast in 1949.

United Feature may be most remembered for its purchase of Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” in 1950.

Hawkins and Howard retired as chairman and president, respectively, in 1952.

The Cincinnati Enquirer —which had been acquired in 1956—was carefully kept separate from the other papers to diminish possible charges of a monopoly.

The company also bought another Cincinnati newspaper, the Cincinnati Times-Star, in 1958 and merged it into the Post.

In 1960 Scripps-Howard purchased the Cleveland News and merged it into the Cleveland Press.

Scripps-Howard Radio was renamed Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Company in 1961, and two years later went public.

1962: The Scripps Foundation is incorporated.

In 1963 the broadcast properties were taken public under the name Scripps Howard Broadcasting Company.

In 1964, however, the United States Department of Justice accused Scripps Howard of owning a monopoly and ordered it to sell the Enquirer.

Two Florida newspapers, the Stuart News and the Hollywood Sun-Tattler, that were acquired in 1965.

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.

After numerous setbacks, the joint venture was suspended in 1967, and the newspapers all folded.

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.

Acting under a United States 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.

In 1976 Jack Howard retired as president of E.W. Scripps but remained a director of E.W. Scripps and chairman of Scripps Howard Broadcasting.

In 1977 the company bought for $29 million the 90 percent of Media Investment Co. that it did not already own.

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.

By 1980 eight of the 16 remaining Scripps dailies were in such arrangements, a higher percentage than any other major chain.

In 1981 the E.W. Scripps Company began looking for a buyer for UPI. Estlow said that part of the reason was the possibility that the beneficiaries of the Scripps trust fund might bring legal action forcing the closing or selling of the wire service.

Pace, Eric, "U.P.I. Sold to New Company," New York Times, June 3, 1982.

In 1985 Lawrence A. Leser became president of Scripps and quickly began making changes.

In 1986 the company bought two television stations from Capital Cities Communications and the American Broadcasting Co.

In 1987, as a prelude to its stock offering, the firm officially released financial data for the first time, reporting operating income of $150 million on sales of $1.15 billion.

The 1988 stock offering left the Scripps trust with approximately 75 percent ownership of the company.

In February 1989 it sold the six-day Florida Sun-Tattler for an undisclosed amount and bought Cable USA's system in Carroll County, Georgia.

In 1990 Scripps began the SportSouth Network to provide regional sports programming on cable television in six southern states.

In late 1991 the company announced a modernization of the Pittsburgh Press delivery systems.

The modernization, which would cause hundreds of layoffs, resulted in a crippling strike that lasted well into 1992; the newspaper was sold on December 31, 1992.

Two years later, William R. Burleigh was named president and CEO. Meantime, the E.W. Scripps Company continued to deemphasize its broadcasting side when it sold its cable systems to Comcast Corporation in November 1995 for $1.58 billion.

In August 1997 the E.W. Scripps Company traded its daily newspapers in Monterey and San Luis Obispo, California, to Knight-Ridder, Inc. for the Daily Camera, a newspaper in Boulder, Colorado.

In May 1998 the company sold Scripps Howard Productions, and later that year Cinetel Productions changed its name to Scripps Productions.

HGTV, which was available in 48.4 million cable homes by early 1999, marked the beginning of the company's cable narrowcasting strategy--what it called "category television." The aim was to become the predominant player in particular cable television categories.

Nineteen percent of 2001 revenues came from broadcast television, 24 percent from category television, and the remaining six percent from licensing and other media.

Sales for Shop At Home Network in 2002 were $195.8 million.

In 2004, due largely to its cable programming operations, and the advertising dollars it generated, Scripps announced higher than predicted profits, prompting a two-for-one stock split for its shareholders.

In 2011, Scripps consolidates its digital operations across its newspaper and broadcast operations into a single organization with a focus on capturing the digital audience and advertiser opportunity on web, mobile and other emerging platforms.