History

Tribune is a media industry leader reaching more than 80 percent of U.S. households through newspaper publishing, television and radio broadcasting and the Internet. Operations are concentrated in the nation’s major markets, including the top three, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The company was founded in 1847. That year, on June 10, the Chicago Tribune published its first edition in a one-room plant located at LaSalle and Lake Streets. The original press run consisted of 400 copies printed on a hand press.

In 1869, the Tribune erected its first building, a four-story structure at Dearborn and Madison Streets. In October 1871, when the Great Chicago Fire raged through the city, the wooden building was destroyed, as was most of the city. The Tribune reappeared two days later with an editorial declaring "Chicago Shall Rise Again." The newspaper’s editor and part-owner, Joseph Medill, was elected mayor and led the city’s reconstruction. A native Ohioan who first acquired an interest in the Tribune in 1855, Medill gained full control of the newspaper in 1874 and guided it until his death in 1899.

Medill’s two grandsons, Robert R. McCormick and Joseph Medill Patterson, assumed leadership of the company in 1911. That same year, the Chicago Tribune’s first newsprint mill opened in Thorold, Ontario. The mill marked the beginnings of the Canadian newsprint producer later known as QUNO, in which Tribune held an investment interest until 1995.

Chicago’s WGN Radio (720 AM) went on the air in 1924, its call letters reflecting the Chicago Tribune’s renowned slogan, "World’s Greatest Newspaper." The station was an innovator from the start. It was first to broadcast the World Series, the Indianapolis 500 and the Kentucky Derby, and broke new ground by introducing microphones in the courtroom during the famous 1925 Scopes "monkey trial" in Tennessee. Today, Tribune’s original broadcast property is a 50,000-watt Midwest powerhouse.

Also in 1925, the company completed a new headquarters and one of Chicago’s first "skyscrapers." Tribune Tower’s neo-Gothic design was chosen from 263 entries in a $100,000 international competition. The 40-story building is a Chicago landmark and perhaps best known for the many historic stones and artifacts embedded in its limestone exterior.

The Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate was formed in 1918. Its successor, Tribune Media Services, is one of the largest and most diverse content syndication operations in the world, managing and delivering content to a broad range of media and business customers. TMS customers can choose from hundreds of different content products, including classic to cutting-edge comic strips, columns from top commentators and other specialty features products. In addition, the TMS Entertainment Products Group collects and distributes television programming data and movie listings.

Tribune entered the infant television industry in 1948, when it established WGN-TV in Chicago, followed by WPIX-TV in New York. These stations, now affiliates of The WB Television Network, became the foundation for Tribune Television, today one of the country’s largest independent TV groups.

A century of family leadership, starting with Joseph Medill in 1855, ended with the passing of Col. Robert R. McCormick, the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, in 1955. The McCormick Tribune Foundation was established as a charitable trust upon McCormick’s death and now claims assets of more than $2 billion and annual giving of $100 million.

In the 1960s, the company entered the fast-growing Florida market, acquiring the Fort Lauderdale-based Sun-Sentinel in 1963 and the Orlando Sentinel in 1965. A third television station, Denver’s KWGN-TV, was purchased in 1966.

The formation of Tribune Broadcasting Company in 1981 signaled the growing importance of television in the company’s business mix. Another key event in 1981 was Tribune’s acquisition of the Chicago Cubs baseball team from the Wrigley family for $20.5 million. WGN Radio and WGN-TV had been broadcasting Cubs games since those stations first went on the air. Since 1978, when WGN-TV became a "superstation," the Cubs have been aired to a national audience via cable. Today, Superstation WGN reaches about 60 million U.S. homes outside Chicago through cable and direct broadcast satellite.

Tribune Entertainment Company was created in 1982 and today develops, produces and distributes television programming for Tribune stations and non-Tribune stations nationwide. Based in Hollywood, the business distributes and co-produces some of the TV industry’s most successful syndicated weekly one-hour action dramas, including "Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda." Tribune Entertainment’s beginnings trace back to 1975 when it began syndicating "U.S. Farm Report."

In 1983, after 136 years of private ownership, Tribune became a public company with an initial offering of 7.7 million shares valued at $206 million. The opening price per share was $26.75. At the time, it was one of the largest IPOs ever made. The company’s New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol was TRB.

Several acquisitions served to accelerate Tribune’s growth in the mid-1980s. Most significant was the 1985 purchase of KTLA-TV in Los Angeles for $510 million. This made Tribune the only non-network company to own VHF stations in the country’s top three markets. Television stations in Atlanta and New Orleans were acquired shortly before KTLA, and the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) joined Tribune’s newspaper group in 1986.

Tribune grew dramatically during the 1990s, spurred by a loosening of federal regulations restricting television and radio ownership. This resulted in rapid consolidation within the broadcasting industry and Tribune played the role of consolidator by expanding its holdings in the top 40 markets. Through a series of acquisitions and investments, the company emerged as one of the largest owners and operators of television stations in the nation. Key additions included Philadelphia’s WPHL-TV in 1991 and Boston’s WLVI-TV in 1994.

In what would prove a wise investment, Tribune acquired an equity interest in The WB Television Network upon its launch in 1995. The move ensured that Tribune stations would have access to original and high-quality prime-time programming at affordable prices. Soon, The WB would prove to be a magnet for teenage and young-adult viewers -- an audience of paramount importance to most advertisers.

CLTV, the Chicago area’s first and only 24-hour all-news cable channel, took to the air in 1993. As the sister station of the Chicago Tribune, CLTV quickly became a model for multimedia content sharing and cross promotion throughout Tribune. Today, Tribune newspapers actively partner with the news operations of Tribune television stations in their markets or with non-Tribune broadcasters, including local radio stations. The strategy expands the audience for our newspaper content and the on-air promotion helps increase readership.

Tribune’s television stations and newspapers are complemented by high-traffic news and information websites that are unrivaled among their peers for content and functionality. The sites are operated by Tribune Interactive -- established in 1999 and now among the leading online networks in the country. The group manages all aspects of the company’s TV and newspaper sites, plus special-interest sites like ChicagoSports.com and many sites featuring local dining and entertainment information. Affiliated national-brand classified advertising sites, in which Tribune owns an equity interest, include CareerBuilder, cars.com and apartments.com.

Tribune’s total operating revenues had grown to an impressive $2.2 billion in 1995. But several major acquisitions were ahead -- transactions that would push revenues to more than $5 billion by the end of 2002.

Television stations in Houston and San Diego were acquired in 1996, followed in 1997 by Tribune’s largest television acquisition ever -- Renaissance Communications for $1.1 billion. Six stations joined the Tribune group, including KDAF-TV in Dallas and WBZL-TV in Miami.

But the most significant Tribune acquisition was yet to come, and this time the assets gained would be newspapers. The merger with The Times Mirror Company, completed in June 2000, effectively doubled the size of Tribune and secured its position among the top tier of major media companies. The $8.3 billion transaction was the largest acquisition in newspaper industry history.

The Times Mirror merger added seven daily newspapers to the Tribune fold, headlined by the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Baltimore Sun and the Hartford Courant. Tribune was now the only media company with newspapers and television stations in the top three markets. Among other advantages from the merger, including various economies of scale, Tribune newspapers could now effectively compete for national advertising. Tribune Media Net, the national advertising sales organization of Tribune Publishing, was established in 2000 to take advantage of the company’s expanded scale and scope.

Spanish-language newspapers continue to grow in importance, and Tribune is well positioned in major markets with large Hispanic populations. Hoy is published daily in Los Angeles and Chicago, and weekly Spanish-language newspapers are offered in Central Florida and South Florida.

Daily newspapers targeting urban commuters represent yet another growth initiative. The Chicago Tribune launched its RedEye edition in 2002, and one year later Tribune invested in amNewYork. Both tabloids are distributed free of charge and geared to young adults who want their news in an fast-paced, entertaining format.

Tribune returned to private ownership in December of 2007.

Throughout its history, Tribune has applied technology with great imagination and foresight, earning the company an industrywide reputation for innovation. A few notable achievements and historical facts about Tribune business units are offered here:

• 1764: The Hartford Courant, known then as The Connecticut Courant, publishes its first edition. The Courant is the country’s oldest newspaper in continuous publication.
• 1919: Chicago Tribune, a pioneer in the use of color, becomes first newspaper to print four-color rotogravure on a continuous web press.
• 1923: Chicago Tribune becomes first newspaper to use an automatic stuffing machine.
• 1947: KTLA becomes first commercial television station west of the Mississippi
• 1948: WGN becomes first station to televise a live sporting event -- in fact, a whole slate of Chicago Cubs games during its first year on the air.
• 1952: KWGN signs on as Denver’s first television station.
• 1955: KTLA becomes first Los Angeles television station to originate color programming, beginning with the Rose Bowl Parade.
• 1958: KTLA becomes first station with its own helicopter for news reporting.
• 1959: WPIX introduces instant replay during a Yankees baseball telecast.
• 1985: Chicago Tribune offers full text of newspaper via online computer databases.
• 1992: Tribune’s Chicago Online -- a local information, entertainment and shopping service for PC users—debuts on America Online.
• 1993: Full-text of Chicago Tribune available online.
• 1995: Tribune Media Center opens in Washington, D.C. -- the country’s first multimedia news bureau of its kind. The center brings together the newsgathering operations of Tribune’s newspapers and television stations.
• 1998: KTLA airs launch of space shuttle Discovery on Oct. 29 in digital (HDTV) format

A timeline of significant events in Tribune Company’s history, including business unit acquisitions, is available here.