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This
page considers Block Communications Incorporated (BCI)
of the US.
It covers -
introduction
BCI - formerly Blade Communications - had net revenues
of US$420 million in the year ended 31 December 2003.
It is currently owned by the Block family. It publishes
the Toledo (Ohio) daily Blade and Pittsburgh
daily Post-Gazette, owns a handful of free to
air television stations, Ohio cable tv operator Buckeye
CableSystem, a security company (Corporate Protection
Services) and other operations.
Its corporate site is here.
The newspapers trace their origins to 1796 and 1835. Paul
Block (1875-1941) made a small fortune selling newspaper
advertising at the turn of last century, after migrating
to the US in 1885, and by 1927 was the publisher of eleven
newspapers (including the Blade, acquired in
1926 for a reported US$4.5 million and the Post-Gazette,
formed through a 1927 swap with Hearst).
At various times he owned the New York Evening Mail,
Newark Star-Eagle and the Detroit Journal,
Brooklyn Standard-Union, Duluth Herald,
Lancaster New Era and Milwaukee Sentinel.
Block was a close associate of Hearst, reflected in finance
for one of Marion Davis' more forgettable films and service
as a Hearst front man in acquisition of the Los Angeles
Express.
The group downsized during the 1930s Depression, acquired
Hearst's Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph in 1960 and
expanded into television on a small scale in the 1980s
and 1990s after selling a handful of radio stations. The
latter decade saw acquisition and closure of the Scripps-owned
Pittsburgh Press, funded through debt and sale
to Scripps of the Monterey Herald.
holdings
Holdings as of mid-2005 include -
Buckeye
CableSystem - cable tv and broadband internet
Buckeye Telesystem - phones
Community Communication Services - mailing services
Corporate Protection Services - security service
Erie County Cablevision - cable tv
KTRV-TV - broadcast tv
Metro Fiber & Cable Construction - cable tv network
construction
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Toledo Blade
WAND-TV (33% held by LIN Television)
- broadcast tv
WDRB-TV - broadcast tv
WFTE-TV - broadcast tv
WLIO-TV - broadcast tv
studies
For the group's founder see Frank Brady's Paul Block,
a Life of Friendship, Power, and Politics (Lanham:
Uni Press of America 2001) and Roger Hall's 1989 dissertation
Paul Block of the Toledo Blade: An apostle of rugged
individualism in the age of the New Deal (1988).
The Blade is profiled in the celebratory The
Blade of Toledo: The First 150 Years (Toledo: Blade
1985) by John Harrison. For the Post-Gazette see Front-Page
Pittsburgh: 200 Years of the Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh:
Uni of Pittsburgh Press 2005) by Clarke Thomas.
The LA Express sale features in Rob Wagner's
Red Ink, White Lies: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles
Newspapers, 1920-1962 (Upland: Dragonflyer Press
2000).
chronology
This
chronology is indicative only. Context
is provided by the broader communications and media timeline
on this site.
1786
Pittsburgh Gazette founded by John Scull &
Joseph Hall
1828 Gazette sold to Morgan Neville and rebadged
as Pittsburgh Gazette & Manufacturing & Mercantile
Advertiser
1829 David McClean buys the Gazette
1835 launch of the Toledo Blade
1841 David White takes over Gazette
1844 Gazette becomes morning daily
1866 partnership led by Nelson Reed takes over Gazette.
Reed later acquires Pittsburgh Commercial, amalgamated
as Commercial Gazette
1885 Paul Block migrates from Germany
1897 founds Paul Block Associates
1900 George Oliver acquires Commercial Gazette,
renamed the Gazette and later merged with Pittsburgh
Times to form The Gazette-Times
1900 Block launches national advertising buying agency
1908 buys Newark Star-Eagle
1924 Pittsburgh Press acquired by Scripps-Howard
1926 Paul Block acquires Toledo Blade for US$4.5m
1927 Hearst purchases Pittsburgh
Gazette Times and Chronicle-Telegraph
1927 Given estate sells Pittsburgh Post and
Sun to Paul Block
1927 Block swaps evening Sun for morning Gazette
Times, merges Post with Gazette-Times
as Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
1929 buys Newark Bears
1931
buys Los Angeles Express on behalf of Hearst
1939 Block's Newark Star-Eagle sold to Newhouse
1949 launch of Sunday Post-Gazette
1960 Block buys Sun-Telegraph from Hearst
1961 Post-Gazette and Scripps' Pittsburgh Press Company
enter into Joint Operating Agreement
1965 Block launches cable TV system in Toledo
1967 buys Monterey Herald from founder Allen
Griffin
1972 Block acquires WLIO (Lima, Ohio)
1981 Block acquires cable system in Sandusky
1984 Block acquires WDRB (Louisville, Ky.)
1985 Block acquires KTRV (Boise, Id.)
1987 Block acquires CCS (an advertising distribution firm
in Toledo)
1992 strike at Pittsburgh Press Company closes The
Press and Post-Gazette for eight months
1992 Scripps sells Pittsburgh Press to Block
Communications (publisher of Post-Gazette), buys
Monterey County Herald from Block
1993 Block closes Pittsburgh Press
1997 BCI starts own telephone company and cable construction
company
1998 Block acquires CPS (Toledo home and office security
firm)
2000 Block acquires 66.7% of WAND (Champaign, Springfield
and Decatur) through deal with LIN
Television over WLFI-TV
2001 Block acquires WFTE (Louisville, KY)
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