Block

This page considers Block Communications Incorporated (BCI) of the US.

It covers -

• introduction
• holdings
• studies
• chronology

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)