Our Company
Timeline   -   
 
 
  Timeline
 
1878-1934
   
 
The Early Years:
Year Month/ Day Event
1878 Nov. 2 Edward Willis Scripps (EWS), 24, started Cleveland Penny Press, with $10,000 borrowed from family members.
     
1880 July 31 Branched out to St. Louis, starting The Chronicle, a disaster from the start. He let it become a chronic invalid and drain him until it was sold in 1908.
     
1881 November EWS, bothered by bronchial ailment, took sister Ellen and began year-and-a-half tour of Europe and Mediterranean.
     
1883 Jan. 1 EWS acquired control of Cincinnati Penny Post from his brother James, who had purchased it in 1881.
     
  June
EWS returned to United States from Europe.
     
1890 Sept. 2 Changed name of Penny Post to The Cincinnati Post.
     
  Sept. 15 Started The Kentucky Post, across Ohio River from Cincinnati.
     
  Fall
Created Scripps-McRae League to run his newspapers.
     
  December
EWS visited California, bought desert acreage near San Diego and began eight-year construction of Miramar ranch.
     
1892 June 3
EWS acquired his first paper on Pacific Coast, The San Diego Sun.
     
1895 March
Started the Los Angeles Record
     
1896 Dec. 23 Acquired the Kansas City World.
     
1899 Feb. 25 Started Seattle Star.
     
  Sept. 21 Started the Akron Press.
     
1900 April 11 Started the Chicago Press.
     
1902 June 2 Started Newspaper Enterprise Association feature service.
     
  June 7
Acquired the Des Moines News.
     
  Nov. 7 Started the Spokane Press.
     
1903 March 21 Started the San Francisco News.
     
  June 8 Acquired Toledo News-Bee.
     
  Dec. 21
Started Tacoma Times.
     
1904 July 2 Acquired Columbus Citizen.
     
  Nov. 21
Started Sacramento Star.
     
1905 Aug. 31 Started Fresno Tribune.
     
1906 April 26 Started Denver Express.
     
  July 2 Started Evansville Press.
     
  July 21 EWS purchased Publisher's Press; merged with Scripps- McRae Press Association and Scripps News Associations into United Press, though this did not become effective until June 21, 1907.
     
  Sept. 1 Started Pueblo Sun.
     
  Sept. 10 Started Terre Haute Post.
     
  Sept. 18
Started Dallas Dispatch.
     
  Sept. 29 Started Portland News.
     
  Oct. 1
Started Oklahoma News.
     
  Nov. 1
Started Memphis Press.
     
  Dec. 1 Started Nashville Times.
     
1907 Aug. 1
Acquired Berkeley Independent.
     
1908 Feb.
EWS "retired" turning over business management to son Jim, 22, but keeping hand in with his editors.
     
1909 May 3
Started Oakland Mail.
     
1911   Started United Press (later known as United Press International, or UPI).
     
  Sept. 25
Started Houston Press.
     
  Sept. 28
Started Chicago Daybook.
     
1912 May 11 Started Philadelphia News-Post.
     
1917   EWS went to Washington to supervise coverage and editorial treatment of World War I. Jim became angry over EWS's insistence that Robert P. Scripps become editor-in-chief (and because of other business differences broke away from his father and used his and his associates' stock positions to break off five West Coast papers and the Dallas Dispatch).
     
  November
EWS suffered stroke and went to Florida to recuperate and learned the pleasure of living on a yacht, which he did most of the rest of his life.
     
1920   EWS withdrew from management of his many enterprises, and made Robert P. Scripps and Roy W. Howard responsible for editorial and business direction, respectively.
     
1921 Jan. 21 Started Birmingham Post which later merged with the Herald to become the Birmingham Post-Herald. The paper ceased publication on Sept. 23, 2005 when the economics of publishing the newspaper were no longer favorable.
     
  June 13 Started Norfolk Post.
     
  Oct. 3 Started Fort Worth Press.
     
  Nov. 8 Started The Washington Daily News.
     
  Nov. 21 Started The Knoxville News.
     
1922   United Feature Service was organized (and a year later United Newspictures, forerunner of Acme Newspictures, was started).
     
  Feb. 1 Acquired Youngstown Telegram.
     
  May 27 Acquired Indianapolis Times.
     
  Aug.. 21
Started El Paso Post.
     
  June 22 Scripps motto "Give light and the people will find their own way" first used. (Lighthouse emblem added in May 1927.)
     
  Nov. 3 Change of name from Scripps-McRae to Scripps Howard announced. Roy Wilson Howard (RWH) assumed joint editorial direction of papers with Robert P. Scripps.
     
  Nov. 22
Started Baltimore Post.
     
  Nov. 23 The E.W. Scripps Trust was created.
     
1923 July 27 Acquired Pittsburgh Press.
     
  Sept. 24 Acquired New Mexico State Tribune.
     
1926   Knoxville Sentinel purchased and merged into Knoxville News-Sentinel. Denver News and Times purchased and consolidated with Express into Rocky Mountain News. Memphis News-Scimitar purchased and merged with Press into Memphis Press-Scimitar.
     
  March 12 EWS died on his yacht Ohio in Monrovia Bay, Liberia, Africa and was buried at sea.
     
1927 Feb. 10 Acquired The New York Telegram.
     
1931 Feb. 27 Acquired The World and merged with The New York Telegram into New York World Telegram.
     
1933 Feb. 18 Tribune and Journal combined business operations to form Albuquerque Publishing Company.