E. W. Scripps Company

The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is headquartered inside the Scripps Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its corporate motto is "Give light and the people will find their own way."

History

The E. W. Scripps Company was incorporated on December 1, 1987, but it traces its history to November 2, 1878, when Edward Willis Scripps published the first issue of the Cleveland Penny Press.

In 1894, E. W. Scripps and his half-brother, George H. Scripps, organized their various papers into the first modern newspaper chain. In July 1895, it was named the Scripps-McRae League with the addition of Cincinnati Post general manager Milton A. McRae as a partner. On November 29, 1921, it was renamed Scripps-Howard Newspapers, to recognize Roy W. Howard.

On November 23, 1922, the company was placed in trust for E. W. Scripps' children and grandchildren. The company's shares were divided into two types: Class A Common Shares, which were traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and common voting shares, which were not publicly traded and elected a majority of the company's directors. A number of media companies, including the New York Times Company and the Washington Post Company, are governed by this system so that the descendants of the company's founders can keep control of the company.

In 1990, the company completed a new downtown Cincinnati headquarters, the Scripps Center.

On October 16, 2007, the company announced that it would separate into two publicly traded companies: The E. W. Scripps Company (newspapers, TV stations, licensing/syndication) and Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE: SNI), (HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Cooking Channel [formerly known as Fine Living], Travel Channel and Great American Country). The transaction was completed on July 1, 2008.

On October 3, 2011, The E. W. Scripps Company announced it was purchasing the television arm of McGraw-Hill for $212 million. This purchase nearly doubles the number of Scripps stations to 19 with a combined reach of 13% of U.S. households. Upon the 2012 death of E. W. Scripps' grandson, Robert Scripps, the Edward W. Scripps Trust was dissolved and its stock divided among the surviving trustees.

The E. W. Scripps Company and Journal Communications announced on July 30, 2014, that the two companies would merge and spin-off their newspaper assets. The deal will create a broadcast group under the E.W. Scripps Company name and retaining the Cincinnati headquarters, as well as a newspaper company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, under the Journal Media Group name. The transaction is slated to be completed in 2015, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. The FCC approved the deal on December 12, 2014, and it was approved by shareholders on March 11, 2015. The merger and spinoff were completed on April 1, 2015.

Scripps newspapers

In 1997, Scripps bought daily Texas newspapers in Corpus Christi, Abilene, Wichita Falls, San Angelo and Plano, plus the paper in Anderson, S.C. from Harte-Hanks Communications, along with 25 non-daily newspapers and San Antonio-based KENS-TV and KENS-AM. The purchase price was to be between $605 and $775 million, depending on a federal ruling.

The company, before the merger with Journal and creation of spinoff, owned and operated newspapers in 13 American markets:

Ventura County Star (Camarillo, California)
Redding Record Searchlight (Redding, California)
Naples Daily News (Naples, Florida)
Treasure Coast Newspapers:
- The Stuart News (Stuart, Florida)
- Indian River Press Journal (Vero Beach, Florida)
- The St. Lucie News-Tribune (Fort Pierce, Florida)
- The Jupiter Courier (weekly; Jupiter, Florida)
Evansville Courier & Press (Evansville, Indiana)
The Gleaner (Henderson, Kentucky)
The Anderson Independent-Mail (Anderson, South Carolina)
The Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tennessee)
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee)
The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Texas)
Corpus Christi Caller Times (Corpus Christi, Texas)
San Angelo Standard-Times (San Angelo, Texas)
Times Record News (Wichita Falls, Texas)
Kitsap Sun (Bremerton, Washington)

Other newspapers owned by Scripps

Syndicates

Scripps operated United Media (composed of the United Feature Syndicate and the Newspaper Enterprise Association). United Feature Syndicate syndicated many notable comic strips including Peanuts, Garfield, Li'l Abner, Dilbert, Nancy and Marmaduke. NEA, originally established as a secondary news service to the Scripps Howard News Service, later evolved into a general syndicate, and were best known for syndicating Alley Oop, Freckles and His Friends, The Born Loser and Frank and Ernest, in addition to an annual Christmas comic strip. The distribution rights to properties syndicated by United Media was outsourced to Universal Uclick in February 2011. While United Media effectively ceased to exist, Scripps still maintains copyrights and intellectual property rights.

Scripps also operated United Press International (United Press from its 1907 inception until a 1958 merger with Hearst's International News Service) until selling it off in 1982. It also previously owned the Scripps Howard News Service, which shut down in 2013.

Broadcasting

E. W. Scripps' television division currently owns thirty-three television stations in twenty-four markets; fifteen ABC affiliates, five NBC affiliates, five Azteca AmÃ©rica affiliates, two My Network TV affiliates, two CBS affiliates, two Fox affiliates, one CW affiliate, and one independent affiliate. As a result of its merger with Journal, The company will also retain Journal's radio stations group for the time being, along with maintaining the sports play-by-play radio networks for Journal's major broadcasting rights in Wisconsin; the Green Bay Packers Radio Network, and the Milwaukee Brewers Radio Network.

Scripps also previously owned the Shop at Home Network from 2000 until 2006. Shop at Home in turn owned five television stations, all as a division of its cable network division.

In October 1995, Comcast announced the purchase of E. W. Scripps' cable provider operation.

Attempts to use Shop at Home as a compliment to Food Network and HGTV were middling compared to competitors QVC and HSN. On May 22, 2006, Scripps announced that it was to cease operations of the network and intended to sell each of Shop at Home's five owned and operated television stations. Jewelry Television eventually acquired Shop at Home, but Scripps still intended to sell its affiliated stations (Jewelry Television discontinued most Shop at Home operations in March 2008). On September 26, 2006, Scripps announced that it was selling its Shop at Home TV stations to New York City-based Multicultural Television for $170 million.

On October 3, 2011, Scripps announced it was purchasing all seven television stations owned by The McGraw-Hill Companies for $212 million; the sale is a result of McGraw-Hill's decision to exit the broadcasting industry to focus on its other core properties, including its publishing unit. This deal was approved by the FTC on October 31 and the FCC on November 29. The deal was completed on December 30, 2011.

On February 10, 2014, Scripps announced it has reached a deal to acquire Buffalo ABC affiliate WKBW-TV and Detroit MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYD for $110 million. The sale was approved by the FCC on May 2, 2014 and was completed on June 16, 2014. This deal has created a duopoly between WMYD and ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV.

Television stations

Notes:

(**) - Indicates stations built and signed on by Scripps.
(Â¤Â¤) - Indicates stations that were previously owned by McGraw-Hill prior to its acquisition by Scripps in 2011.
(##) - Indicates stations that were acquired by Scripps from Granite Broadcasting in 2014.
(Â§Â§) - Indicates stations were previously owned by Journal Communications prior to its merger with Scripps in 2015.

Other Notes:

¹ Owned by Raycom Media, it is operated through a shared services agreement.
² Owned by Venture Technologies Group, it is operated through a shared services agreement.

Radio stations

Former Scripps-owned stations

Television stations

General commercial stations

Shop at Home owned-and-operated stations

Radio stations

Notes:
** indicates a station that was built and signed-on by E.W. Scripps
++ indicates a station that was owned by Scripps but operated by Belo Corporation (via a time brokerage agreement) during Scripps' ownership

National Spelling Bee

Scripps also operates the national (US) spelling bee. The final competition is in Washington, DC, and it is broadcast on ESPN and ABC. Lower levels are organized by the school, then county and eventually to the final competition. E.W. Scripps will retain ownership of the property in the split of its newspaper and broadcasting businesses.

Controversies

Hugo Zacchini performed a human cannonball act in 1972 at the Geauga County Fair in Burton, Ohio. Scripps television station WEWS-TV recorded and aired the entire act against his wishes and without compensating him, as was required by Ohio law. In Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment did not shield the broadcaster from liability from common law copyright claims.

Scripps owns and operates The Commercial Appeal, which posted a controversial database listing Tennessee residents with permits to carry handguns. The database is a public record in Tennessee, but had not previously been posted online.

Scripps owns and operates the Ventura County Star, which has faced many complaints involving its circulation practices rather than its editorial content. As of April 2, 2011, the Better Business Bureau listed ten (10) separate "significant" complaints from the previous three years, of which two alleged the company made unauthorized debits from customers' checking accounts, four alleged problems obtaining refunds, two alleged the company harassed a customer or former customer, two alleged improper billing, and two alleged delivery continuing after customers tried to cancel. (The total number of allegations does not add to the total number of complaints because two complaints made multiple allegations.)

In May 2013, Scripps News Service discovered and published a security breach on the websites of Oklahoma-based TerraCom Inc. and an affiliate, YourTel America Inc. in which the personal information of tens of thousands of low-income Americans was publicly exposed. In response, the two companies accused Scripps of "hacking" and of violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan subsequently announced an investigation into the two companies.

References

External links

Scripps Corporate Site
Scripps Howard News Service
Nieman Journalism Lab. "E.W. Scripps". Encyclo: an Encyclopedia of the Future of News. Retrieved April 1, 2012.Â

E. W. Scripps Company

Friday, May 8, 2015