Houston Chronicle

Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner Hearst Corporation
Publisher Jack Sweeney
Editor Jeff Cohen
Founded 1901
Headquarters Houston Chronicle Building
Downtown Houston, Texas
United States
Circulation 494,131 Daily
632,797 Sunday[1]
ISSN 1074-7109
Official website chron.com

The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. As of March 2008, it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. With the demise of its long-time rival the Houston Post, its nearest major competitors are located in Dallas-Fort Worth.

The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily paper owned and operated by the Hearst Corporation, a multinational corporate media conglomerate with $4 billion in revenues. The paper employs nearly 2,000 people, including approximately 300 journalists, editors, and photographers. The Chronicle has bureaus in Washington, D.C. and Austin. Its web site averages more than 75 million page views per month.[2]

On October 19, 2008, the paper endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, the first Democrat to be endorsed by the newspaper since 1964, in which it endorsed Texan Lyndon B. Johnson.

Contents

History

Houston Chronicle frontpage.jpg

From its inception, the practices and policies of the Houston Chronicle were shaped by strong-willed personalities who were the publishers. The history of the newspaper can be best understood when divided into the eras of these individuals.

1901–1926: Marcellus E. Foster Era

The Houston Chronicle was founded in 1901 by a former reporter for the now-defunct Houston Post, Marcellus E. Foster. Foster, who had been covering the Spindletop oil boom for the Post, invested in Spindletop and took $30 of the return on that investment — at the time equivalent to a week's wages — and used it to found the Chronicle.

The Chronicle's first edition was published on October 14, 1901 and sold for two cents per copy, at a time when most papers sold for five cents each. At the end of its first month in operation, the Chronicle had a circulation of 4,378 — roughly one tenth of the population of Houston at the time.[3] Within the first year of operation, the paper purchased and consolidated the Daily Herald.

In 1908, Jesse H. Jones, a local businessman, constructed a new office and plant for the paper in exchange for a half-interest in the company.[4]

Under Foster, the paper's circulation grew from about 7,000 in 1901 to 75,000 on weekdays and 85,000 on Sundays by 1926. Foster continued to write columns under the pen name Mefo, and drew much attention in the 1920s for his opposition to the Ku Klux Klan. He sold the rest of his interest to Jesse H. Jones on June 26, 1926 and promptly retired.[5]

Goodfellows

Illustration of the Houston Chronicle building, 1913[6]

In 1911, City Editor George Kepple started Goodfellows. On a Christmas Eve in 1911, Kepple passed a hat among the Chronicle's reporters to collect money to buy toys for a shoe-shine boy.

Goodfellows continues today through donations made by the newspaper and its readers. It has grown into a city-wide program that provides needy children between the ages of 2 and 10 with toys during the winter holidays. In 2003, Goodfellows distributed almost 250,000 toys to more than 100,000 needy children in the Greater Houston area.

1926–1956: Jesse H. Jones Era

In 1926, Jesse H. Jones became the sole owner of the paper. In 1937, Jesse H. Jones transferred ownership of the paper to the newly-established Houston Endowment Inc. Jones retained the title of publisher until his death in 1956.

According to The Handbook of Texas Online, the Chronicle generally represented very conservative political views during the 1950s:

"...the Chronicle generally represented the very conservative political interests of the Houston business establishment. As such, it eschewed controversial political topics, such as integration or the impacts of rapid economic growth on life in the city. It did not perform investigative journalism. This resulted in a stodgy newspaper that failed to capture the interests of newcomers to the city. By 1959, circulation of the rival Houston Post had pulled ahead of the Chronicle."[7]

1956–1965: John T. Jones Era

The board of Houston Endowment named John T. Jones, nephew of Jesse H. Jones, as editor of the Chronicle. Houston Endowment president, J. Howard Creekmore, was named publisher. In 1961, John T. Jones hired William P. Steven as editor. Steven had previously been editor of the Tulsa Tribune and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and credited with turning around the declining readership of both papers. His progressive political philosophy soon created conflict with the very conservative views of the Houston Endowment board. In 1964, the Chronicle purchased the assets of its evening newspaper competitor, the Houston Press,[8] becoming the only evening newspaper in the city. By then, the Chronicle had a circulation of 254,000 - the largest of any paper in Texas. The Atlantic Monthly credited the growth to the changes instigated by Steven.[9]

1965–1987: J. Howard Creekmore Era

In 1965, both John T. Jones and William P. Steven left the Chronicle. J. Howard Creekmore, president of the Houston Endowment, took John Jones' place at the Chronicle. Everett D. Collier replaced Steven as editor. Collier remained in this position until his retirement in 1979.

J. Howard Creekmore was born in Abilene, Texas in 1905. His parents died while he was young, so he was raised by his stepmother. The family moved to Houston in 1920. Howard enrolled in Rice Institute, where he graduated with degrees in history and English. After graduation, he went to work for Jesse Jones as a bookkeeper. Jones took an interest in the young man’s career, and put him through law school. Creekmore passed the bar exam in 1932 and returned to work for Jones. He held several positions in the Jones business empire. In 1959, he was named to the board of Houston Endowment, and was promoted to president of the board in 1964.[10]

By 1965, Creekmore had persuaded other directors of Houston Endowment to sell several business properties, including the Chronicle. Houston oilman John Mecom offered $85 million for the newspaper, its building, a 30% interest in Texas Commerce National Bank and the historic Rice Hotel. Early in 1966, Mecom encountered problems raising the additional cash to complete the transaction. He then began lining up potential buyers for the newspaper, which included non-Houstonians such as Sam Newhouse, Otis Chandler and the Scripps-Howard organization. Creekmore strongly believed that local persons should own the paper. He insisted that Mecom pay the $84 million debt immediately in cash. Mecom cancelled his purchase agreement.[11]

In 1968, the Chronicle set a Texas newspaper circulation record. In 1981, the business pages — which up until then had been combined with sports — became its own section of the newspaper.

Creekmore remained as publisher until Houston Endowment sold the paper to the Hearst Corporation.

1987–present: Hearst Corporation Era

On May 1, 1987, the Hearst Corporation purchased the Houston Chronicle from Houston Endowment for $415 Million.[12] Richard J. V. Johnson, who had joined the paper as a copy editor in 1956, and worked up to executive vice president in 1972, and president in 1973, remained as chairman and publisher until he retired April 1, 2002.[13] He was succeeded by Jack Sweeney.

In 1994, the Chronicle switched to being a morning-only paper. With the demise of the Houston Post the following year, the Chronicle became Houston's sole major daily newspaper.

Headquarters

Houston Chronicle headquarters in Downtown Houston

The Houston Chronicle building in Downtown Houston is the headquarters of the Houston Chronicle. The facility includes a loading dock, office space, a press room, and production areas. It has ten stories above ground and three stories below ground. The printing presses are housed below ground.[14] The newsroom within the facility has bull-pen style offices with a few private cubicles and offices on the edges.[15]

The facility, almost 100 years old as of 2010, was originally four separate structures that were joined together to make one building.[14]

People

Jack Sweeney is the publisher and president of the Houston Chronicle.

As of April 2006, the editorial board includes:

(The previous president was Richard J. V. Johnson, who died in 2006.)

The paper employs nearly 2,000 people, including approximately 300 journalists. In addition, the Chronicle contracts with multiple distributors who circulate and deliver copies of the newspaper.

A longtime Chronicle officer was John Hulen Murphy, I, the assistant to Richard Johnson, former executive vice president of the Texas Daily Newspaper Association, and a newspaperman, mostly in Houston, for seventy-four years.

Awards

Individual awards

Pulitzer Prize

The Houston Chronicle is the only newspaper of the '10 largest' in the United States to have never won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism.

However, the newspaper and its staff have several times been Pulitzer finalists:

Sections

The Houston Chronicle is divided into several sections:

On some days, "local" sections (Z) for residents of various Houston-area neighborhoods appear - Depending on one's residence, a customer will receive one of the following sections on Thursdays:

Robert Jensen series on the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S.

In the weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks the Houston Chronicle published a series of opinion articles by University of Texas journalism professor Robert Jensen that asserted the United States was "just as guilty" as the hijackers in committing acts of violence and compared that attack with the history of U.S. attacks on civilians in other countries. The opinion piece resulted in hundreds of angry letters to the editor and reportedly over 4,000 angry responses to Jensen.[35] Among them were claims of insensitivity against the newspaper and of giving an unduly large audience to a position characterized as being extremist. University of Texas president Larry Faulkner issued a response denouncing Jenson's as "a fountain of undiluted foolishness on issues of public policy", noting "[h]e is not speaking in the University's name and may not speak in its name." [36]

The Chronicle printed four subsequent opinion articles by Jensen, asserting his case. Jensen is also a regular guest writer on the opinion page and has published several dozen opinion articles on other subjects in the Chronicle.

Criticism

Light rail controversy

The paper's most vocal critics were conservative talk radio station KSEV and its affiliated weblogs, the now-defunct Chronically Biased and Lone Star Times. Chronically Biased featured a cartoon character named "Captain Chronicle" who espouses light rail transit as the solution to all of Houston's problems (including those unrelated to traffic.) In May 2005 the Harris County Republican Party joined a short-lived boycott of the newspaper, [37] called for previously by KSEV hosts. The Republican Party accused the paper of having a liberal political slant, of biased coverage of the light rail project, of supporting Planned Parenthood and of waging a "personal smear campaign" against Houston area congressman Tom DeLay, who was under criminal indictment.

The newspaper also has had critics on the political left. The Houston Press, an alternative weekly tabloid newspaper that often takes a liberal perspective, used to run a column entitled "News Hostage", which often critiqued the Chronicle. Now that paper only occasionally criticizes the Chronicle in its "Hairballs" column.

In late 2002, Chronicle website managers accidentally posted an internal memorandum on its Web site, HoustonChronicle.com. The memorandum [38] outlined a draft agenda of coordinated news articles, editorials, and op-eds seemingly intended to promote a hotly contested mass transit referendum to expand Houston's controversial METRORail system on the 2003 ballot, which was later approved narrowly by voters. The memo's anonymous author proposed supporting the referendum and stated:

"Next November, voters in the city and across the Metropolitan Transit Authority service area will cast a truly important vote: They will decide whether Metro should be permitted to expand our rail rail system beyond the 7-mile South Main line. There isn't a more critical issue on the horizon.
I propose a series of editorials, editorial cartoons and Sounding Board columns leading up to the rail referendum, with this specific objective: Continuing our long standing efforts to make rail a permanent part of the transit mix here.
The timing, language and approach of the paper's editorials would, of course, be the decision of the Editorial Board. But I suggest that they could be built upon and informed by a news-feature package with an equally specific focus..."

The memorandum then proposed several "investigative" news stories and editorials designed to examine "the campaign led by Tom DeLay and Bob Lanier to defeat rail expansion." DeLay, a Houston congressman, and Lanier, a former mayor of Houston, had both actively opposed light rail in the past.

The document was online for only an hour, but long enough to be viewed by some readers. Soon after the Houston Review, a conservative newspaper published by students at the University of Houston (now defunct), printed the memo's full text and an accompanying commentary that criticized the paper for bias toward rail. The Houston Press also accused the Chronicle of having a bias toward rail.[39] They dubbed the paper Houston's "in-house light rail newsletter," described it as a "tireless promoter of rail," and mocked its editorial board's portrayal of light rail as the key to making Houston a "world class" city [40] – a claim echoed by the city's former mayor, Lee P. Brown, who campaigned on a platform of bringing light rail to Houston. Other local weekly and monthly newspapers, including the Houston Forward Times, a local African-American weekly newspaper, seized on the controversy, as did local talk radio stations, bloggers, and the conservative Free Republic Internet forum.

The Chronicle's response was initially muted. Its first official response appeared in the "corrections" section later the same week stating: "An internal Houston Chronicle document was mistakenly posted to the editorial/opinion area of the Web site early Thursday morning. We apologize for any confusion it may have caused." Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen, who gave a statement in defense of the memorandum: "I make no apologies for having a thorough discussion of the issue. We have nothing to apologize for…There was an inadvertent posting of it to the Web site, and I'm sorry about that, but I make no apologies for the contents of it."

After the memo's accidental release, the Chronicle's critics noted that its Editorial Board continued being a vocal advocate of the expansion of Houston's light rail and charged that the paper became a partisan participant in the debate over light rail expansion. According to a content analysis of the paper by the Houston Review done to support their allegation of bias, the Houston Chronicle published 5 editorials attacking rail opponents, 6 editorials promoting or endorsing light rail, 6 news stories attacking the motives of rail opponents, 3 news stories promoting a criminal investigation of rail opponents, and 1 staff editorial endorsing a criminal investigation of rail opponents during the course of the election. As the bond referendum approached, the Houston Chronicle requested that Texans for True Mobility (TTM), the main critic of METRORail, provide the paper with a copy of their financial contributor reports. TTM declined, saying they did not believe the Chronicle would adequately protect the privacy of their donors.

The Chronicle responded by making a complaint to the Harris County District Attorney's office asking that Texans for True Mobility be investigated for potential violations of Texas election law. The Chronicle alleged that TTM broke a law requiring PACs to disclose their donors. Violation of this law, a misdemeanor, is punishable by a maximum $500 fine. TTM was a registered non-profit 501(c)(6) organization and said this status did not require them to disclose contributors like PACs must do. The Chronicle argued that the law covered TTM because it made "paid political moves." Texas campaign law allows nonprofits to run "educational" advertisements, but those advertisements cannot endorse specific political positions or people or make a specific recommendation in a pending election. The dispute was over whether TTM's advertisements, and specifically the slogans "Metro's Rail Plan Costs Too Much ... Does Too Little" and "Metro's Plan Won't Work Here," were specific recommendations on how to vote.

Harris County District Attorney Rosenthal later dismissed the Chronicle's complaint, finding it without merit on the grounds that the statute did not apply. Rosenthal's involvement in the probe itself came under fire by the Houston Press, which in editorials questioned whether Rosenthal was too close to TTM: from 2000 to 2004, Rosenthal accepted some $30,000 in donations from known TTM supporters.

Later that year, the group revealed that that their TV and radio ads were funded by $30,000 in contributions made the day before the election by two PACs controlled by DeLay.

By comparison with TTM, which was extensively attacked in the paper's editorials and covered in multiple news stories, the Chronicle devoted only a portion of one article to the finances of Texans for Public Transportation (TPT), the main pro-METRORail group, according to the Houston Review. The Houston Review further alleged multiple conflicts of interest in TPT's financing. The report involved fourteen METRORail contractors and business interests who stood to gain financially from the project and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote the referendum.[16]

Feuds with KSEV radio and Bill O'Reilly

In early 2004 the Chronicle was accused of bias and adding to the family's grief regarding its coverage of the death of Leroy Sandoval, a soldier from Houston who was killed in Iraq. Chronicle reporter Lucas Wall visited the family of Sandoval for an interview about the loss of their loved one.

After the article appeared, Sandoval's family members complained that a sentence alleging "President Bush's failure to find weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq misrepresented their views on the war and President George W. Bush (the Sandoval family was supportive of the war). The next day Sandoval's stepfather and sister called into Houston talk radio station KSEV and explained that Wall had pressured them for a quotation that criticized Bush and then included the line alleging Bush's "failure" against the wishes of the family.[41]

A bitter on-air showdown ensued between the KSEV radio show host/owner Dan Patrick, and an assistant managing editor at the Chronicle, who defended his reporter's story. The incident prompted Patrick to join the call for a boycott of the paper.[42] The story was also picked up by the local Houston television stations and, a week later, the O'Reilly Factor. The issue cooled down when Chronicle publisher Jack Sweeney contacted the Sandoval family to apologize.[43]

Patrick and Bill O'Reilly have both been involved in subsequent disputes with the Chronicle over alleged biases and writings pertaining to each other. [44] In 2005 O'Reilly and then-editorial page editor James Howard Gibbons became involved in a heated exchange carried out over their respective media outlets involving a Chronicle editorial that, according to O'Reilly, seemingly advocated softer treatment for convicted child sex offenders.

[45] The Chronicle responded to O'Reilly by editorializing against the host and accusing him of misrepresenting their position and misquoting a segment of the editorial. O'Reilly retracted the erroneous quotation but reiterated his criticism by quoting the correct editorial, which criticized Florida's Jessica Lunsford Act, espoused rehabilitation for sex offenders, and argued that "counseling reduces recidivism". The incident also prompted O'Reilly to host a segment on liberal bias at the Houston Chronicle on his March 12 television broadcast, featuring criticisms of the paper by Patrick.[46]

Purchase of Houston Post assets

A Houston Chronicle facility, formerly the Houston Post headquarters

In 1995, the Houston Post ceased operations, leaving the Chronicle as Houston's only major daily newspaper, and the Hearst Corporation purchased some of the Post's assets. Houston Chronicle announced it in a way that suggested the shutdown and Hearst's purchase of the Post's assets were simultaneous events. "Post closes; Hearst buys assets," the Chronicle headline read the day after the Post was shut.

Internal memos obtained from by FOIA from the Justice Department antitrust attorneys who investigated the closing of the Houston Post said the Chronicle's parent organization struck a deal to buy the Post six months before it closed. The memos, first obtained by the alternative paper the Houston Press, say the Chronicle's conglomerate and the Post "reached an agreement in October, 1994, for the sale of Houston Post Co.'s assets for approximately $120 million." [47]

Tom DeLay poll

In January 2006 the Chronicle hired Dr. Richard Murray of the University of Houston to conduct an election survey in the district of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, in light of his 2005 indictment by District Attorney Ronnie Earle for alleged campaign money violations. The Chronicle claimed that its poll showed "severely eroded support for U.S. Rep Tom DeLay in his district, most notably among Republicans who have voted for him before."[48]

Former Texas Secretary of State Jack Rains contacted the Chronicle's James Howard Gibbons, alleging that the poll appeared to incorrectly count non-Republican Primary voters in its sample. Rains also pointed out that Dr. Murray had a conflict of interest in the poll. Murray's son Keir Murray is a Democratic political consultant who works for Nick Lampson, DeLay's Democratic challenger in 2006.[49] In response, Gibbons denied the methodological flaws in the poll.

Availability of Houston Post articles

Some Houston Post articles had been made available in the archives of the Houston Chronicle website, but by 2005 they were removed. The Houston Chronicle online editor Mike Read said that the Houston Chronicle decided to remove Houston Post articles from the website after the 2001 United States Supreme Court New York Times Co. v. Tasini decision; the newspaper originally planned to filter articles not allowed by the decision and to post articles that were not prohibited by the decision. The Houston Chronicle decided not to post or re-post any more Houston Post articles because of difficulties in complying with the New York Times Co. v. Tasini decision with the resources that were available to the newspaper. People interested in reading Houston Post articles may view them on microfilm. The Houston Public Library has the newspaper on microfilm from 1880-1995 and the Houston Post Index from 1976 to 1994. The microfilm of 1880-1900 is in the Texas and Local History Department of the Julia Ideson Building, while 1900-1995 is in the Jesse H. Jones Building, the main building of the Central Library. In addition the University of Houston's main library has the Houston Post available on microfilm from 1880-1995 and the Houston Post Index from 1976 to 1979 and from 1987 to 1994.[17]

See also


References

  1. ↑ "2008 Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the U.S. by Circulation" (PDF). BurrellesLuce. 2008-03-31. http://www.burrellesluce.com/top100/2008_Top_100List.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
  2. ↑ Houston Chronicle. Hearst Corporation. Last accessed December 11, 2008.
  3. ↑ Houston Chronicle. Handbook of Texas Online. June 6, 2001. Last accessed May 29, 2009.
  4. ↑ Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed September 20, 2009."
  5. ↑ Handbook of Texas Online. "Foster, Marcellus Elliot (1870-1942)". Accessed March 26, 2010.
  6. ↑ Gonzales, J. R. "Another way to get your news from the Chronicle." Houston Chronicle. October 14, 2008. Retrieved on May 26, 2010. The image is not from the J. R. Gonzalez article, but the picture in the Gonzales depicts the same building that is seen in the illustration.
  7. ↑ The Handbook of Texas Online. “Houston Chronicle”.
  8. ↑ The Handbook of Texas Online. “Houston Chronicle.” Accessed December 2, 2009.
  9. ↑ Ben H. Bagdikian, "Houston's Shackled Press," Atlantic Monthly August 1966 [1] Accessed March 25, 2010.
  10. ↑ “At the helm: Chronicle publishers.”Accessed May 11, 2010.[2] Ackerman, Todd. Houston Chronicle, October 12, 2001
  11. ↑ Time. “Newspapers: A Deal Done In” June 17, 1966. [3] Retrieved May 10, 2010.
  12. ↑ Houston Chronicle Archives, "Houston Chronicle purchase completed by Hearst Corp." May 1, 1987.
  13. ↑ [4]“Richard J.V. Johnson: September 22, 1930 - January 14, 2006” American Advertising Federation Houston. Posted January 19, 2006. Accessed December 2, 2009.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Chronicle Building." Houston Chronicle. Retrieved on May 26, 2010.
  15. ↑ "Newsroom." Houston Chronicle. Retrieved on May 26, 2010.
  16. ↑ [5]
  17. ↑ Newkirk, Jim. "Houston Post archives permanently unavailable online, maybe, likely, really..." Houston Chronicle. July 1, 2005. Retrieved on July 3, 2010.

External links

Official sites