Cowles Company

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Cowles Company
Key people
Elizabeth A. Cowles
(Chair)
W. Stacey Cowles
(Publisher)
Websitecowlescompany.com
Footnotes / references
Real Cities, McClatchy Interactive

The Cowles Company is a diversified media company in

financial services.[1]

William Stacey Cowles, the publisher of The Spokesman-Review, is the great-grandson of the company's founder, William H. Cowles, and the fourth generation of the Cowles family to run the paper. His sister, Elizabeth A. Cowles, is chairwoman of the parent company. Rob Curley is the editor.

History

Spokesman-Review tower in Spokane

William H. Cowles came to Spokane at age 24 to be the business manager of the Spokesman, which was founded less than two years before, and excelled at local news coverage. He had experience as a police reporter for the Chicago Tribune and was the son of the Tribune's treasurer, Alfred Cowles Sr. He soon bought the Spokesman from his partners. In 1893, he bought a rival paper, the Review, and merged the two papers into The Spokesman-Review. He acquired the Spokane Chronicle in 1897.

According to Time in 1952, he was a "determined man" who had an artificial leg yet walked two miles to the office each day.[2]

Cowles set the Chronicle on a course to be independent, and The Spokesman-Review to support

Harry Truman that he declared the Spokesman-Review to be one of the "two worst" newspapers in the United States.[3] The Scripps League's Press closed in 1939, making Cowles the only newspaper publisher in Spokane. Cowles created four weeklies, the Idaho Farmer, Washington Farmer, Oregon Farmer and Utah Farmer.[2] Cowles died in 1946. When William H. Cowles Jr. succeeded his father as publisher, James Bracken received much more news and editorial control as managing editor.[2] William H. Cowles III succeed his father as publisher.[4]

The original Review Building, designed by Seaton & Ferris in 1891 in a style closest to

Richardson Romanesque, is ten stories with a tower that reaches 146 feet (45 m). In 1975, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[5]

Television

Cowles' television operations are centered around the two NBC affiliates in eastern Washington. The flagship is

Clear Channel Communications. They are KCOY-TV in Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo, California and KION-TV in Monterey, California. KION carries The CW on a separate digital channel. Cowles would also have a management agreement with KCBA, the Fox affiliate serving Salinas, Monterey and Santa Cruz, California, and would acquire two low power stations, KKFX-CA, also Fox in San Luis Obispo, California and the Telemundo affiliate KMUV-LP in Monterey.[7]
The deal closed on May 7, 2008.

On September 20, 2013, News-Press & Gazette Company announced that it would purchase Monterey stations, KION-TV and KMUV-LP, as well as San Luis Obispo station KKFX-CA. NPG will also take over some of the operations of Santa Maria sister station KCOY-TV, which Cowles will retain, under a shared services agreement (as NPG's holdings in the area already include KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara).[8] The existing LMA for KCBA was terminated on December 1, 2013, as that station's operations were assumed by Entravision Communications through a joint sales agreement (the license was retained by Seal Rock Broadcasters). On September 30, 2013, Cowles announced that it would acquire Max Media's Montana television station cluster for $18 million.[9][10] The sale was finalized on November 29.

In October 2022, Cowles introduced the standardized branding NonStop Local for all of its stations' news programming, as part of an effort to promote them as multi-platform news sources.[11]

Current

(**) - indicates a station built and signed on by Cowles.

Cowles Montana Media Company

City of license / Market Station Channel
TV (RF)
Owned since Affiliation
Billings, MT KULR-TV 8 (11) 2013 NBC
Miles City, MT KYUS-TV[A] 3 (3) [a] NBC
Butte, MT KWYB 18 (19) 2013
Bozeman, MT KWYB-LD[B] 18 (19) 2013
  • ABC
  • Fox (DT2)
Great Falls, MT KFBB-TV 5 (8) 2013
  • ABC
  • Fox (DT2)
Helena, MT KHBB-LD[C] 21 (21) 2013
  • ABC
  • Fox (DT2)
Missoula, MT KTMF 23 (23) 2013
  • ABC
  • Fox (DT2)
Kalispell, MT KTMF-LD[D] 42 (42) 2013
  • ABC
  • Fox (DT2)
  1. ^ Satellite of KULR-TV.
  2. ^ Satellite of KYWB.
  3. ^ Satellite of KFBB-TV.
  4. ^ Satellite of KTMF.

KHQ, Incorporated

City of license / Market Station Channel
TV (RF)
Owned since Affiliation
Spokane, WA KHQ-TV** 6 (15) 1952
Yakima, WA KNDO 23 (16) 1999
  • NBC
  • SWX (DT2)
Richland, WA KNDU[A] 25 (26) 1999
  • NBC
  • SWX (DT2)
  1. ^ Satellite of KNDO.

Former

Market Station Channel Years owned Current status
Monterey - Salinas, CA KMUV-LP 11 2008-2013 Telemundo affiliate owned by News-Press & Gazette Company
KCBA 35 2008-2013[b] Fox affiliate owned by Seal Rock Broadcasters, LLC[c]
KION-TV 46 2008-2013 CBS affiliate owned by News-Press & Gazette Company
Santa Barbara - Santa Maria -
San Luis Obispo, CA
KCOY-TV 12 2008-2015[d] Telemundo affiliate owned by VistaWest Media, LLC[e]
KKFX-CA 24 2008-2013 Fox affiliate KKFX-CD, owned by News-Press & Gazette Company

Other affiliations

Cowles family

The Cowles family of Spokane is descended from Elizabeth (1827–1910) and Sarah Hutchinson (1837–1884) of

Cleveland, Ohio. Edwin published the Cleveland Leader and Alfred moved to Chicago, Illinois where he purchased one third of the Chicago Tribune.[12]

Feminist and educator Betsy Mix Cowles was Alfred and Edwin's paternal aunt. Edwin's sons Alfred and Eugene were chemists and metallurgists who invented and operated electric arc smelters to extract aluminum. Alfred Cowles, 3rd—the grandson of Alfred Sr.—founded the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics following the Great Depression.

Distantly related, the Cowles family of Spokane are about sixth cousins of the family of

Minneapolis, Minnesota who owned Cowles Media Company. Both Cowles publishing families are descendants of Hannah Bushoup (c.1613-1683) of Hartford, Connecticut and John Cowles (1598–1675) of Gloucestershire, England
.

Alfred Cowles and Sarah Frances Hutchinson had four children: Edwin (1861–1861),

William Hutchinson (1866–1947). William married Harriet Bowen Cheney, and became a newspaper publisher in Spokane, Washington. William is also the grandfather of William H. Cowles III.[4]

Gallery

Notes

  1. ^ Owned by Marks Radio Group, Cowles operates KYUS via a time-brokerage agreement.
  2. ^ Cowles operated KCBA through a shared services agreement (SSA).
  3. ^ Operated through an SSA by Entravision Communications.
  4. ^ From 2014 to 2015, News-Press & Gazette Company operated KCOY under an SSA.
  5. ^ Operated under SSA by News-Press & Gazette Company.

References

  1. ^ Yahoo! or Hoovers via Yahoo!. "Cowles Publishing Company Company Profile". Retrieved October 23, 2007.
  2. ^ a b c "The Inland Empire's Voice". Time. January 7, 1952. Archived from the original on January 8, 2012. Retrieved October 28, 2007.
  3. ^ "When Harry Gave Us Hell". The Spokesman-Review. Cowles Publishing Company. September 7, 2007. Archived from the original on August 12, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  4. ^ a b Ferrendelli, Betta (November 11, 2001). "Four generations of Cowles built diverse empire". Puget Sound Business Journal.
  5. ^ "Review Building". Emporis. Archived from the original on January 1, 2007. Retrieved October 18, 2007.
  6. ^ "Business in brief: Cowles Co. buying California stations". The Spokesman-Review. Cowles Publishing Company. September 26, 2006. Retrieved October 28, 2007.[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ "Cowles Buying California TV Stations". TV Newsday. September 26, 2007. Retrieved October 25, 2007.
  8. ^ "KCOY to 'share services' with KEYT parent company under planned station purchases". Santa Maria Times. September 23, 2013. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  9. ^ Application For Consent To Assignment Of Broadcast Station Construction Permit Or License Archived December 19, 2013, at the Wayback Machine "Federal Communications Commission", October 1, 2013
  10. ^ Application For Consent To Assignment Of Broadcast Station Construction Permit Or License "Federal Communications Commission", October 1, 2013
  11. ^ "Washington, Montana stations consolidate under 'NonStop Local' brand". NewscastStudio. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
  12. . Retrieved October 24, 2007.

External links