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overview
This profile considers the Spokane-based Cowles Publishing
Company.
It covers -
The
company is independent of the former Cowles media group
(profiled here) that was controlled
by a separate Cowles dynasty and included publications
such as Look, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune
and Flair magazine.
introduction
Cowles Publishing Company traces its origins to acquisition
by William Hutchinson Cowles (1866-1920) of the Spokane
Spokesman-Review in 1893.
William was a distant relative of midwest banker Gardner
Cowles Sr (who went on to buy the Des Moines Register
& Leader in 1903). He had worked as a reporter
on McCormick's Chigago Tribune
(where his father was the corporate treasurer) and after
moving west acquired a stake in the Spokane Falls Spokesman.
His uncle Edwin Cowles (1825-1890) had published the Cleveland
Leader. Acquisition of the Spokesman-Leader
was funded by the estate of Cowles' father, borrowings
against the Spokesman's real estate and income
from the family's stake in the Tribune Co.
Cowles acquired the Spokane Chronicle in 1897
and established the Inland Empire Paper Co in 1911. Inland
later expanded from paper milling into forestry (with
holdings in the US Northwest, California and south) and
property development. As the dominant media group in Spokane
- a position it retains today - Cowles Publishing acquired
regional farm magazines (notably Northwest Farmer-Stockman)
which provided a base for development of insurance and
finance businesses and expanded from radio into television
broadcasting (initially through the KHQ radio and television
stations).
Diversification by the third generation of Cowles saw
acquisition of what became Pinnacle Productions (a film/video
postproduction house with headquarters in Houston), television
stations KNDO in the Tri-Cities and KNDU in Yakima. The
family unloaded publications such as Arizona Farmer,
Idaho Farmer, Washington Farmer, Oregon
Farmer and Utah Farmer-Stockman, with Northwest
Farmer-Stockman shifting to become a pure insurance
business.
In 2008 Cowles acquired four television stations from
Newport Television (a Providence Equity subsidiary): two
full-power CBS affiliates (KCOY
Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo and KION Monterey-Salinas)
and companion low-power stations in each of those markets
(Fox affiliate KKFX-CA in San Luis Obispo and Telemundo
affiliate KMUV-LP in Monterey).
holdings
As of May 2008 Cowles included -
Television
- KCOY
Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo, California
-
KION Monterey-Salinas, California
-
KKFX-CA San Luis Obispo
-
KMUV-LP in Monterey
-
KHQ Spokane, Washington
-
KNDO/KNDU Yakima-Pasco-Richland-Kennewick, Washington
Print
- Spokesman-Review,
Spokane
- Journal
of Business, Spokane
- Nickels
Worth
Film/Multimedia
Insurance and Finance
- Basic
Financial Solutions, Inc
- Northwest
Farmer-Stockman
Real
Estate
-
Citizens Realty
- Washington
State Realty Company
- River
Park Square LLC mall
Paper
-
Inland Empire Paper Company.
studies
[under development]
Perceptions of conflicts of interest (or merely heavy-handedness)
involving the Spokesman-Review and the Cowles
family are critiqued by Camas
magazine.
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