Houston Press (Scripps Howard)

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Houston Press
Founder(s)Paul Carroll Edwards (1882–1962)
Publisher
OCLC number
14353651

The Houston Press was a

Scripps Howard daily afternoon newspaper, founded in 1911, in Houston, Texas.[2] Under the leadership of founding editor Paul C. Edwards (1911–16), Marcellus E. Foster, known as "Mefo" (1927–37), and George Carmack (1946–64), the newspaper developed a reputation for flashy stories about violence and sex and for exposés of political malfeasance. It ceased publication in 1964.[3]

History

The Houston Press was first issued September 25, 1911, from a plant at 709 Louisiana Street, for 1 cent a copy.[2] For the first fiftyeight days, the Press had no advertising; its management asserted that its circulation had yet to warrant investment of any advertiser's money.

Notable former staff members included Walter Cronkite,[4] who later became the CBS news anchor; Thomas Thompson, author of Hearts and Blood and Money; Donald Forst, later editor of Newsday and The Village Voice; Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and biographer Vance Trimble; columnists Sig Byrd ("The Stroller") and Carl Victor Little (1894–1959) ("By The Way");[5] gossip columnist Maxine Mesinger; and television crusader Marvin Zindler, who once worked there as a photographer covering crime stories. Joseph Agris, who became Zindler's biographer, called the Houston Press "a paper that, by journalistic standards, had no standards at all" and Clyde Waddell who was a chief photographer in 1943.[6]

Closure of the Press in 1964

In 1963, the year before it closed, the Press had an average daily circulation (Monday–Saturday) of 90,400, and employed 320 people. On March 20, 1964, editor Carmack and Business Manager Ray L. Powers announced that the newspaper, plant, and facilities had been sold to the larger of its two rivals Houston Chronicle for $4.5 million[7][3][8][9] (equivalent to $42.46 million in 2022).[10] The Press had never missed a publication since it was founded.[1] Following the closure of the Press, two Houston daily newspapers remained, the morning Houston Post and the evening Houston Chronicle (1964 average daily circulation of 226,600). Houston, before the closing of the Press, had been the only city west of the Mississippi River with more than two daily newspapers.[1]

Houston Press selected personnel

Editors

In its 52-year history The Press had six editors:

Managing editors

Journalists

Artists, illustrators, cartoonists

  • Sidney Hyman Van Ulm (1894–1978) joined the Press in 1925, where he drew cartoons for public relations, public service announcements, sports, legal trials, and advertisements. Ulm also was the golf editor of the Press for 37 years.[27]
  • Ed Franklin ( Edward Livingston Franklin; 1921–2006), a self-taught artist, born in Chireno, Texas, after World War II, by the late 1940s, joined the art department of the Press. He did illustration work, and a few cartoons. During the mid-1950s, The Saturday Evening Post, Argosy, and True published his work.[28]

Business managers

Houston Press buildings

Beginning May 1913, the Press moved from 709 Louisiana Street to a new building at Capitol Avenue and Bagby Street.

Italianate-style by Howell & Thomas, a Cleveland firm.[33][8]

Selected articles

Bibliography

Notes

References

External links