The San Antonio Light

The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the state of Texas, with a daily circulation of nearly 100,000 copies in 2016. The newspaper's online presence includes both the subscription version of the ''San Antonio Express-News'' and the ad-supported ''mySA''.

History

The paper was first published in 1865 as a weekly tabloid-style newspaper under the name ''The San Antonio Express''. At that time, the city had already had a number of other newspapers in a number of different languages. However, all the other publications went out of business, leaving only the ''Express'' to serve the city.

In December 1866, the ''Express'' made the move from a weekly paper to a daily newspaper, and expanded into a full newspaper by the early 1870s. The early days of the ''Express'' was marked by several leadership changes which almost doomed the paper, until a brand new company, the Express Printing Company, took control in 1875. The ''Express'' eventually became a daily morning newspaper in 1878.

In January 1881, a new rival newspaper, the ''Evening Light'', was first published by A. W. Gifford and J. P. Newcomb, who had been an early investor in the ''Express''. The ''Evening Light'' was published as an afternoon paper, as opposed to the morning ''Express''. At first, the editors of the ''Express'' chose to ignore the upstart paper, but the ''Light'' soon grew in popularity at the turn of the 20th century. In 1906 the ''Daily Light'' was sold to E. B. Chandler, and in 1909 the Daily Light Publishing Company bought the ''San Antonio Gazette''. From then until 1911 the paper was referred to as the ''Light and Gazette''. Edward S. O'Reilly, known as Tex, was at one time managing editor. In 1911 Harrison L. Beach and Charles S. Diehl, veteran correspondents of national standing, moved to San Antonio and bought the ''Light and Gazette''. Once again it was known as the ''Light''. Diehl was a founder of the AP wire service. Beach and Diehl installed leased wire news service and published the first full stock market reports in a San Antonio paper. The ''Light'' became liberal-Democratic in its political views. While Beach and Diehl ran the paper, circulation increased from 11,000 to 25,000 copies daily. In 1918, the ''Express'' ownership, now renamed Express Publishing Company, launched its own afternoon paper, the ''San Antonio Evening News''. Soon thereafter, a rivalry developed between workers of the ''Express'' and the ''News''. In fact, some ''News'' workers dubbed a new office building as the ''News-Express'' building. In 1924, however, William Randolph Hearst bought the ''Light'' and instituted Hearst policies, and by 1945 the circulation was approximately 70,000.

The 1920s was marked by expansion by Express Publishing as the company started one of the city's first radio stations, WOAI, in 1922. As the two rival companies entered the 1950s, the ''Express'' and the ''News'' both had higher readership numbers than the ''Light''. However, the ''Light'' skyrocketed to the top of the market when it acquired a number of popular comic strips, like Dick Tracy. Over at ''Express Publishing'', the company diversified further as they acquired a couple more radio stations, and a television station which they renamed KENS-TV. Those call letters were intended to stand for, K-Express News Station. In the 1960s, ''Express Publishing'' was sold to the Harte-Hanks newspaper group.

In 1973, with the ''Light'' beating the ''Express'' and the ''News'' in circulation numbers, a new ownership group emerged. Australian native Rupert Murdoch of News Corp bought the ''Express'' and the ''News'' from Harte-Hanks. Murdoch re-formatted the ''News'' as a more tabloid-styled paper, while the ''Express'' retained its original, conservative format. The ''Light'' was now forced to compete against two different styles of newspaper while at the same time trying to combat the growing costs of an afternoon circulation.

By September 1984, the ''Express'' and the ''News'' merged into the ''Express-News'' and afternoon service was slowly discontinued, while the ''Light'' started getting into the morning circulation business in order to keep up. But under News Corp., the ''Express-News'' adopted a more mainstream format and expanded its services to communities outside Bexar County. As a result, the ''Express-News'' became San Antonio's leading newspaper for good. By 1992, News Corp had diversified into movies and television and was looking to sell the ''Express-News''. The Hearst Corporation, which still owned the ''Light'', agreed to either sell or close the newspaper and acquire the ''Express-News'' in order to keep its stake in the San Antonio market. The ''Light'' never found a buyer and it went out of business in January 1993.

On February 13, 2016, the paper broke the news of the death of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

In 2019, the ''Express'' sold its downtown headquarters building. The planned move to another downtown property was delayed as the COVID-19 pandemic led to the staff working remotely. Finally, the paper moved one block away to the top two floors of the Light Building, named after the ''Light'', its former tenant, in 2022 as employees returned to in-person work.

See also

*Dan Cook
* List of newspapers in Texas

References

Sources

Handbook of Texas Online, San Antonio Light

External links

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Hearst subsidiary profile of the ''San Antonio Express-News''

San Antonio Light: About the Collection
''The Portal to Texas History'' University of North Texas

{{San Antonio

Daily newspapers published in Texas
Mass media in San Antonio
Hearst Communications publications
Publications established in 1865