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overview
holdings
landmarks
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overview
This
profile considers the Belo newspaper and broadcasting
groups.
It covers -
introduction
As of 2004 US media group Belo owned 17 television stations
(six in major markets) reaching 13.7% of US television
households, owned or operates six cable news channels
and managed three television stations through local marketing
agreements. It published five daily newspapers including
The Dallas Morning News (one of the largest US
newspapers, with a daily circulation of over 0.5m) and
The Providence Journal.
The group began moving out of newspapers and expanding
its television holdings in the 1990s, culminating in a
split into discrete television (Belo
Corporation) and newspaper (A
H Belo Corporation) companies in 2008. It does not
have an Australian presence.
fission
Belo Corporation spun off its newspaper arm into a publicly-traded
company in early 2008 through a tax-free distribution
of A. H. Belo shares to Belo Corp. shareholders. Both
the new A. H. Belo and Belo Corp. are headquartered in
Dallas, Texas.
A. H. Belo Corporation owns and operate the Dallas
Morning News (9th largest US daily and 12th largest
Sunday newspaper on circulation), the Providence Journal,
the Press-Enterprise in Southern California and
Denton Record-Chronicle, along with web sites,
direct mail and commercial printing businesses. as of
early 2008 the group had annual revenues of approximately
US$750 million and about 3,800 employees.
At the date of the spin-off Belo Corp had approximately
3,200 employees and revenues of over US$750 million. It
claimed to be the "largest pure-play publicly-traded
television station company in the nation", as an
owner and operator of 20 television stations (including
ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW and MyNetwork TV affiliates) reaching
14% of US television households. It also owned two 24-hour
regional cable news channels: Northwest Cable News (NWCN,
claimed as the nation's second-largest regional cable
news channel, reaching 2.1 million households in the Pacific
Northwest) and Texas Cable News (TXCN, Texas' only regional
cable news channel, reaching more than 1.8 million homes).
It expected to retain ownership of two additional news
channels and to operate two others through partnerships.
Providence Journal
Acquisition of the Providence Journal Company in 1997
for US$1.5 billion embraced the daily Providence Journal-Bulletin
and Dallas Morning News, KING-TV and NorthWest
Cable News (NWCN) in Seattle/Tacoma, KGW-TV in Portland,
WCNC-TV in Charlotte, WHAS-TV in Louisville, KMSB-TV in
Tucson, KREM-TV in Spokane, and KTVB-TV in Boise.
Providence Journal and partner Kelso & Company had
acquired King Broadcasting Company in 1992. Providence
Journal gained King's broadcast television and cable systems,
with King's radio stations being sold separately and its
mobile television company sold to an MBO.
The sale included television stations KING-TV (Seattle,
Washington), KGW-TV (Portland, Oregon), KREM-TV (Spokane,
Washington), KTVB-TV (Boise, Idaho) and KHNL-TV
(Honolulu, Hawaii). The Providence Journal already owned
WHAS-TV (Louisville, Kentucky), former Ted Turner
and Westinghouse station
WCNC-TV (Charlotte, North Carolina), KMSB-TV and KTTU-TV
(Tucson, Arizona) and KASA-TV (Albuquerque-Santa Fe, New
Mexico).
King Broadcasting
King Broadcasting was founded by Dorothy Stimson Bullitt
(1892-1989), heir to the Stimson lumber and property fortune.
She married lawyer A Scott Bullitt (1877-1932), brother
of FDR ambassador William Bullitt, and in 1947 purchased
a small Seattle radio station. Two years later she acquired
a Seattle FM station and the city's only television station,
using the call letters KING to match the name of King
County.
King Broadcasting acquired stations in Portland and Spokane,
expanded into cable television (King Videocable Company)
and provided equipment for local non-profit education
station KCTS. It subsequently acquired stations in Boise
and Honolulu and a radio station in San Francisco.
Daughter Harriet Bullitt founded Pacific Northwest
Magazine (now Seattle magazine) and Pacific
Search Press, sold in 1990.
studies
Sources (not sighted for this profile) include Sam Acheson's
35,000 Days in Texas: A History of the Dallas 'News'
& Its Forbears (New York: Macmillan 1938), Ernest
Sharpe's G. B. Dealey of the Dallas News (New York:
Holt 1955) and the corporate history A. H. Belo Corporation:
Commemorating 150 Years, 1842-1992 (Dallas: AH Belo
1992).
For the Providence Journal see The Providence Journal:
150 years (Providence: Providence Journal 1981) by
Garret Byrnes & Charles Spilman
For King Broadcasting see Casey Corr's King: The Bullitts
of Seattle and Their Communications Empire (Seattle:
Uni of Washington Press 1996) and On the Air: The
King Broadcasting Story (Seattle: Island Publishers
1996) by Daniel Jack Chasan.
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