 Front page of the April 24, 2010 issue  The newspaper's offices in 2018 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | DallasNews Corporation |
| Founder(s) | Alfred Horatio Belo |
| President | Grant Moise |
| Editor | Katrice Hardy[1] |
| Managing editor | Amy Hollyfield |
| News editor | Steve Bruss |
| Managing editor, design | Michael Apuan |
| Sports editor | Tommy Magelssen |
| Founded | October 1, 1885; 139 years ago (1885-10-01) |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | |
| Country | United States |
| Circulation | 69,694 print 63,000 digital-only (as of 2023)[2] |
| ISSN | 1553-846X |
| OCLC number | 1035116631 |
| Website | dallasnews |
The Dallas Morning News is a dailynewspaper serving theDallas–Fort Worth area ofTexas, with an average print circulation in 2022 of 65,369.[3] It was founded on October 1, 1885, byAlfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of theGalveston Daily News, ofGalveston, Texas.[4] Historically, and to the present day, it is the most prominent newspaper in Dallas.[4]
Throughout the 1990s and as recently as 2010, the paper has won ninePulitzer Prizes for reporting andphotography,George Polk Awards for education reporting and regional reporting, and anOverseas Press Club award for photography. Its headquarters is indowntown Dallas.[5]
The Dallas Morning News was founded in 1885 as a spin-off of theGalveston Daily News byAlfred Horatio Belo. In 1926, the Belo family sold a majority interest in the paper to its longtime publisher,George Dealey. By the 1920s,The Dallas Morning News had grown larger than theGalveston Daily News and had become a progressive force in Dallas and Texas.[4]Adolph Ochs, who savedThe New York Times from bankruptcy in 1896 and made the newspaper into one of the country's most respected, said in 1924 that he had been strongly influenced byThe Dallas Morning News.[4]
During the 1920s, when theKu Klux Klan was a powerful force in Dallas,The Dallas Morning News pushed back against the KKK with its news coverage and editorials.[4] In turn, the KKK, which had a membership that included one in three eligible Dallas men, threatened to boycott the newspaper.[4]
In 1904,The Dallas Morning News began publishing theTexas Almanac, which had previously been published intermittently during the 1800s by theGalveston Daily News. After over a century of publishing by theMorning News, theAlmanac's assets were given to theTexas State Historical Association in May 2008.[6]
By the late 1940s, theMorning News had built and opened a new office, newsroom, and printing plant at Houston and Young Streets on the southwest side ofdowntown Dallas. A notable part of the facade above the front doors includes a quote etched in the stony exterior:
BUILD THE NEWS UPON
THE ROCK OF TRUTH
AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
CONDUCT IT ALWAYS
UPON THE LINES OF
FAIRNESS AND INTEGRITY
ACKNOWLEDGE THE RIGHT
OF THE PEOPLE TO GET
FROM THE NEWSPAPER
BOTH SIDES OF EVERY
IMPORTANT QUESTION
G. B. DEALEY
The complex at 508 Young Street would house all or part of theMorning News operations for the next six decades.
In late 1991,The Dallas Morning News became the lone major newspaper in the Dallas market when theDallas Times Herald was closed after several years of circulation wars between the two papers, especially over the then-burgeoning classified advertising market. In July 1986, theTimes Herald was purchased byWilliam Dean Singleton, owner ofMediaNews Group. After 18 months of efforts to turn the paper around, Singleton sold it to an associate. On December 8, 1991,Belo Corporation bought theTimes Herald for $55 million, closing the paper the next day.
It was not the first time the Belo family had bought and closed a paper namedThe Herald in Dallas.
[In]...1879 Alfred H. Belo was investigating the possibility of establishing a sister paper in rapidly developing North Texas. When Belo's efforts to purchase theHerald [an extant paper in Dallas] failed, he sentGeorge Bannerman Dealey to launch a new paper, theMorning News, which began publication on October 1, 1885. From the outset theMorning News enjoyed the double advantage of strong financial support and an accumulation of journalistic experience, and within a month and a half had absorbed its older rival.[7][8]
In 2003,The Dallas Morning News launched aSpanish-language newspaper calledAl Día . InitiallyAl Día came with a purchase price, but it was later made available free. It was published twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday.[9] Publication ceased in June 2023.[10]
Between 2003 and 2011, atabloid-sized publication calledQuick was published byThe Dallas Morning News, which initially focused on general news in a quick-read, digest form, but in later years covered mostly entertainment and lifestyle stories.
In late 2013,The Dallas Morning News ended its longtime news-gathering collaboration with previously co-owned TV stationWFAA. The newspaper entered into a new partnership withKXAS at that time.[11]
Historically, theMorning News' opinion section has tilted conservative, mirroring Texas' drift to theRepublican Party since the 1950s.[12] However, on September 7, 2016, it endorsedHillary Clinton for president, the first time it had recommended aDemocrat for president sinceFranklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.[13] This came a day after it ran a scathing editorial declaring Republican candidateDonald Trump "not qualified to serve as president." It was the first time the paper had refused to recommend a Republican since 1964.[14] Then, ahead of the2018 midterm elections, theMorning News once again endorsed a Democratic candidate:Beto O'Rourke, the challenger to incumbent SenatorTed Cruz.[15] In 2024, theMorning News endorsedColin Allred and referenced Allred'sbipartisanship and Cruz's divisiveness.[16][17]
In late 2016,The Dallas Morning News announced it would move away from its home of 68 years on Young Street to a much-smallerbuilding on Commerce Street previously used as the Dallas Public Library's downtown branch. Reasons given for the move included technology innovations and fewer staff, as well as printing presses no longer co-located with the newsroom and main offices.[18][19] By December 2017, the move was completed.[20] The former property was sold in October 2018 to a business partnership, which was looking into possible redevelopment opportunities for the complex,[21][22] but in December 2018 the partnership backed out of the deal.[23]
Changes were announced in January 2019, which included layoffs and reducing the paper's Business section to one separate section per week, on Sundays; the remainder of the week, Business coverage was placed in the paper's Metro section. A total of 43 employees were affected by the move.[24][25]
In late February 2019, several printing agreements were not renewed at theMorning News' suburban printing plant, and 92 positions were affected by the change there. Publications that had to find a different printing partner included theDallas Observer andFort Worth Weekly.[26]
DallasNews Corporation, the paper's owner, announced on Sept. 13, 2023, it would offer buyouts eliminating up to 40 jobs, a 6% reduction in staff count. Buyouts would be offered starting Oct. 16.[27] In May 2024, the company announced it would move itsPlano printing operation, built in 1980, to a smaller facility inCarrollton. This would result in the elimination of 85 jobs, a 60% staff reduction. The changes were expected to save the company $5 million annually. The News reported in December 2024 it had agreed to sell the Plano location for $43.5 million.[28] A new printing press will be purchased for the new site and should be ready in 2025.[29]
The Dallas Morning News has a new top editor. Louisiana native Katrice Hardy becomes the first woman and Black journalist to lead the newspaper.
On this day in 1885, the Dallas Morning News bought out its major competitor, the Dallas Herald. The Herald was founded in 1849 by James W. Latimer and William Wallace, who purchased the Paris, Texas, Times and moved it to Dallas. The Herald remained a weekly paper until 1874, when it began publishing an edition every morning except Monday. The Morning News grew out of the Galveston News, established in 1842 by Samuel Bangs. By 1879 Alfred H. Belo, who had acquired control of the business, was investigating the possibility of establishing a sister paper in rapidly developing North Texas. When Belo's efforts to purchase the Herald failed, he sent George Bannerman Dealey to launch a new paper, the Morning News, which began publication on October 1, 1885. From the outset the Morning News enjoyed the double advantage of strong financial support and an accumulation of journalistic experience, and within a month and a half had absorbed its older rival.
A development group is dropping plans to purchase the historic Dallas Morning News building in downtown Dallas. An affiliate of Dallas developer KDC and investor Hoque Global signed a contract in October to pay $33 million for The News' more than 7-acre former campus on the southwest side of downtown.
Staff at the Dallas Morning News received word this morning of another round of cuts that includes 43 employees, nearly half of which came from editorial. The corporate speak uses the word "reorganization" and pumps an investment in "technology platforms that support subscribers' online experience." The names have been trickling out.
The Dallas Morning News will cut its standalone business news section as part of cost-cutting measures at the newspaper. The paper also is laying off 40 staffers, including 20 editorial workers. Two of those workers are business news desk staffers. Metro and Business will be combined into one section Tuesday through Saturday. Top business stories will compete for spots on the cover of the combined section.
The Dallas Morning News is cutting back its commercial printing services and retaining only its biggest clients in order to focus more on its core newspaper business. The decision will result in 92 jobs being eliminated at the company's Plano printing plant, the company said Thursday. Fifty-seven of those positions are currently filled. Employees were told of the job cuts this week and will be offered severance packages. Before the cuts, the plant employed about 350 people.
