Tribune group: Chronology
Chronology
This chronology is indicative only. It covers -
Sponsored links
- Antecedents (1819)
- Beginnings (1884)
- Expansion (1924)
- Convergence and churn (1970)
- Times Mirror and Tribune merger (2000)
Context is provided by the broader communications and media timeline on this site. More detailed coverage of the LA Times and the former Times-Mirror group is provided in the supplementary profile for that group.
Antecedents
1819 James Patrick Medill founds weekly Tuscarawas Chronicle
1847 Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809-1884) opens harvester manufacturing plant in Chicago
1849 Joseph Medill (1823-99) establishes Coshocton Republican
1851 Medill founds Daily Forest City in Cleveland
1848 first issue of Chicago Tribune
1855 Chicago Tribune purchased by Joseph Medill (1823-1899)
1861 Wilbur Storey buys the Chicago Times for $13,000. Storey instructs his correspondents during the Civil War "Telegraph fully all news and when there is no news send rumors."
1873 Mirror Printing Office & Book Bindery begins printing Los Angeles Weekly Mirror
1881 Nathan Cole & Thomas Gardiner start Los Angeles Daily Times
1882 Colonel Harrison Gray Otis becomes partner in LA Daily Times & Weekly Mirror
Beginnings
1884 Times-Mirror Company incorporated
1894 Harry Chandler marries Marian Otis, daughter of Harrison Gray Otis
1905 Chandler & Otis make fortune through property speculation when Owens River diverted to Los Angeles
1910 LA Times building destroyed, allegedly by anarchists
1910 McCormick and Patterson cousins share control of Chicago Tribune after death of Medill Patterson
1912 Tribune builds paper mill in Ontario, basis of later QUNO pulp & paper group
1918 Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate formed
1919 Joseph Medill Patterson founds tabloid New York Illustrated Daily News, for a generation the largest circulation US newspaper
Expansion
1924 Tribune buys Chicago radio station WDAP, renamed WGN
1924 Joseph Medill Patterson found Liberty magazine
1925 Pattersons sell stake in Chicago Tribune; Robert McCormick becomes sole owner
1925 Tribune Tower completed
1927 Times Mirror sells radio station KHJ
1928 The Front Page by Chicago Journal reporter Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur
1930 Eleanor Medill 'Cissy' Patterson, sister of Joseph Medill Patterson, edits Hearst's Washington Herald
1937 Patterson leases Washington Herald and Times
1937 Tribune's Baie Comeau newsprint mill opens
1938 Hedda Hopper begins Hollywood gossip column in LA Times, competing with Louella Parsons of Hearst's Los Angeles Examiner
1939 Cissy Patterson establishes Washington Times-Herald
1940 Alicia Patterson, daughter of Joseph Medill Patterson, founds Newsday
1948 McCormick establishes WGN-TV in Chicago
1948 launches WPIX-TV New York
1955 death of Robert McCormick
1956 Tribune buys Chicago's American (formerly Chicago Herald American)
1963 buys Fort Lauderdale-based Sun-Sentinel
1965 buys Orlando Sentinel
1966 buys KWGN-TV Denver
1969 Chicago's American relaunched as Chicago Today
Convergence and churn
1970 Times Mirror buys controlling interest in Newsday
1973 Tribune buys Valley News & Green Sheet (later renamed Los Angeles Daily News) in California from Markham and Mendenhall families for US$25m
1974 Chicago Today launched
1978 buys Palo Alto Times and Redwood City Tribune for US$28m, merges titles
1981 Tribune Broadcasting Company founded
1981 Tribune buys Chicago Cubs baseball team from Wrigley family for US$20.5m
1982 Tribune Entertainment Company founded
1983 Tribune becomes public company
1983 buys WGNO-TV New Orleans
1984 buys WGNX-TV Atlanta
1985 buys KTLA-TV Los Angeles for US$510m
1985 sells Los Angeles Daily News to Jack Kent Cooke, former partner of Roy Thomson
1986 buys Newport News Daily Press
1988 buys Palo Altos Times, Los Altos Crier, Redwood City Tribune and other Meredith Publishing newspapers (subsequently sold or closed)
1988 sells WPIX-FM radio to Emmis
1991 Tribune takes 10% stake in AOL for US$5m
1991 offloads New York Daily News to Maxwell
1991 buys Taft Broadcasting (inc WPHL-TV Philadelphia)
1993 launches CLTV Chicago area 24-hour all-news cable channel
1993 buys Comptons Multimedia
1993 buys Contemporary Books
1993 sells Daily News
1993 closes Palo Alto Times
1993 sells major stake in QUNO Corporation
1993 buys Wright Group publishing for US$100m
1994 sells further 25% stake in QUNO
1994 buys WLVI-TV Boston for US$25m
1994 buys Farm Journal Inc for US$17.5m
1995 acquires equity interest in The WB Television Network
1995 sells QUNO stake
1995 takes stake in Atlanta station WATL
1996 buys KHWB-TV Houston and KSWB-TV San Diego
1997 buys Renaissance Communications (6 tv stations inc KDAF-TV Dallas and WBZL-TV Miami) for US$1.1bn
1997 sells PR News Service to United News & Media
1997 Tribune sells WQCD FM in New York to Emmis
1998 acquires KTWB-TV Seattle
1998 acquires WXMI-TV Grand Rapids
1999 buys WBDC-TV Washington, D.C. and WEWB-TV Albany
1999 trades WGNX-TV Atlanta for KCPQ-TV Seattle
Merger
2000 Tribune group buys Times Mirror group for US$6.5bn
2000 sells Tribune Education to McGraw-Hill for US$680m
2000 sells AchieveGlobal to IIR for US$100m
2000 sells The Sporting News (est 1886) to Paul Allen of Microsoft for cUS$100m
2000 sells Jeppesen Sanderson (Times Mirror mapping arm) to Boeing for US$1.5bn
2000 Tribune buys Qwest Broadcasting - WATL-TV Atlanta and WNOL-TV New Orleans
2001 sells Denver radio stations KOSI-FM, KKHK-FM, and KEZW-AM for US$180m
2001 buys stake (with Baker & Taylor parent Carlyle Group) in varsitybooks.com
2001 buys Maryland Family Magazine
2001 Tribune, CareerBuilder and Knight Ridder buy Headhunter.net
2002 Tribune buys WTTK-TV Kokomo from Sinclair for US$125m
2002 buys WTTV-TV Indianapolis
2002 buys Chicago magazine from Primedia for US$35m
2002 Donohue buys QUNO for C$1.1bn
2003 Tribune invests in amNewYork daily newspaper in New York City
2003 buys PLR-TV (WB11) St Louis and KWBP-TV (WB32) Portland from ACME Communications for US$275m
2003 RedEye edition of Tribune launched
2003 launches Hoy in Chicago
2004 launches Hoy in Los Angeles
2004 Tribune, Gannett and Knight Ridder acquire CrossMedia Services and launch ShopLocal.com
2006 Tribune buys ForSaleByOwner.com
2006 Tribune announces plan to buy back 20% of stock
2006 sells Atlanta television station WATL to Gannett for US$180m
2006 acquires full control of amNewYork from co-founder Russel Pergament and management group
2006 sells WCWN-TV Albany for US$17m