The Times Mirror Company was an American newspaper and print media publisher from 1884 until 2000.

History

It had its roots in the Mirror Printing and Binding House, a commercial printing company founded in 1873, and the '' Los Angeles Times'' (originally the ''Los Angeles Daily Times''), which was first published in 1881 and printed by the aforementioned company. The two operations were purchased and combined in 1884 to form the Times Mirror Company. In 1960, Times Mirror acquired the

New American Library The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publish ...

(NAL) and later sold it in 1983 to Odyssey Partners, a private investing group, and Ira J. Hechler, a private investor. Times Mirror acquired the

World Publishing Company The World Publishing Company was an American publishing company. The company published genre fiction, trade paperbacks, children's literature, nonfiction books, textbooks, Bibles, and dictionaries,"Ben Zevin Dies at 88; Leader Of World Publishing Company,"
''New York Times'' (December 29, 1984). via UPI. By this time, World Publishing was producing 12 million books a year,"WORLD PUBLISHING CO."
''The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History''. Accessed March 3, 2017. one of only three American publishers to produce that much volume. In 1974, Times Mirror sold World Publishing to the U.K.-based

Collins Publishers HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Co ...

. In 1969, the Times Mirror entered magazine publishing by acquiring '' Field & Stream'', '' Popular Science'', and ''

Outdoor Life ''Outdoor Life'' is an outdoors magazine about camping, fishing, hunting, and survival. It is a sister magazine of '' Field & Stream''. Together with ''Sports Afield'', they are considered the Big Three of American outdoor publishing by Mon ...

''; also buying ''

Golf Magazine ''Golf Magazine'' is a monthly golf magazine. It was started in April 1959 by Universal Publishing and Distributing, who sold it to Times Mirror in 1972. Time Inc. acquired it in 2000. It was acquired by Howard Milstein in 2018. It was the worl ...

'' in 1972. Times Mirror owned the '' Sporting News'' from 1977"The Times Mirror Company History,"
Funding Universe. Accessed November 20, 2017. until 2000, when it was sold to Paul Allen's

Vulcan Inc. Vulcan LLC is a privately held company founded by the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his sister Jody Allen in 1986 to establish and oversee the family's diverse business activities and philanthropic endeavors. It includes Vulcan Real Estate ...

In 1987 they acquired '' Field & Stream'', ''

Yachting Yachting is the use of recreational boats and ships called ''yachts'' for racing or cruising. Yachts are distinguished from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose. "Yacht" derives from the Dutch word '' jacht'' ("hunt"). With sailboats, ...

'', ''

Home Mechanix ''Mechanix Illustrated'' was an American printed magazine that was originally published by Fawcett Publications. Its title was founded in 1928 to compete against the older ''Popular Science'' and ''Popular Mechanics''. Billed as "The How-To-Do Ma ...

'', and Skiing. In 1983, Times Mirror owned not only the ''Los Angeles Times'' but also '' Newsday'', ''

The Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

'', ''The Dallas Times Herald'', and the '' Hartford Courant''. In 1986, Times Mirror bought A.S. Abell Company, owners of

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

, and as part of the sale, Gillett Communications bought out the broadcasting unit. Times Mirror acquired Richard D. Irwin Inc. from

Dow Jones & Company Dow Jones & Company, Inc. is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp and led by CEO Almar Latour. The company publishes ''The Wall Street Journal'', '' Barron's'', ''MarketWatch'', ''Mansion Global'', ''Financial News'' and ''Private E ...

in 1988 to enter the textbook field. Times Mirror acquired Wm. C. Brown Co. in 1992. Times Mirror sold its textbook operations to McGraw-Hill in 1996. Times Mirror also owned C.V. Mosby Company from 1967–1998, which published medical college textbooks and reference books;

Harry N. Abrams Abrams, formerly Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (HNA), is an American publisher of art and illustrated books, children's books, and stationery. The enterprise is a subsidiary of the French publisher La Martinière Groupe. Run by President and CEO Michae ...

— a publisher of art and photography books — from 1966–1997; legal publisher Matthew Bender (from 1963 until 1998); and air navigation publisher

Jeppesen Jeppesen (also known as Jeppesen Sanderson) is an American company offering navigational information, operations planning tools, flight planning products and software. Jeppesen's aeronautical navigation charts are often called "Jepp charts" or s ...

(from 1961 until Times Mirror was acquired by the Tribune Company). Subsequent acquisitions, like ''

'' in 1986, expanded the company's portfolio. Times Mirror Co. was acquired by the Tribune Company in 2000. After the acquisition, Tribune sold Jeppesen to

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and produc ...

and the former Times Mirror magazines to

Time Inc. Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...

Newspapers owned by the Times Mirror Company

Broadcasting activities

The Times-Mirror Company was a founding owner of television station KTTV in Los Angeles, which opened in January 1949. It became that station's sole owner in 1951, after re-acquiring the minority shares it had sold to

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

in 1948. Times-Mirror also purchased a former motion picture studio,

Nassour Studios Metromedia Square (later known as Fox Television Center from 1986 to 1996) was a radio and television studio facility located at 5746 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on the southeastern corner of Sunset and Van Ness Av ...

, in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

in 1950, which was then used to consolidate KTTV's operations. Later to be known as Metromedia Square (then the Fox Television Center), the studio was sold along with KTTV to Metromedia in 1963. After a seven-year hiatus from the medium, the firm reactivated Times-Mirror Broadcasting Company with its 1970 purchase of the '' Dallas Times Herald'' and its radio and television stations, KRLD-AM- FM-TV in Dallas. The Federal Communications Commission granted an exemption of its cross-ownership policy and allowed Times-Mirror to retain the newspaper and the television outlet, which was renamed

KDFW-TV KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetw ...

. Times-Mirror Broadcasting later acquired

KTBC-TV KTBC (channel 7) is a television station in Austin, Texas, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, and maintains studios on East 10th Street near the Te ...

in Austin, Texas in 1973; and in 1980 purchased a group of stations owned by Newhouse Newspapers: WAPI-TV (now

WVTM-TV WVTM-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities atop Red Mountain, between Vulcan Trail and Valley V ...

) in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fro ...

;

KTVI KTVI (channel 2) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station KPLR-TV (channel 11). Both stations share studios on ...

in St. Louis; WSYR-TV (now

WSTM-TV WSTM-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Syracuse, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to CBS affiliate WTVH (channel 5) through a local marketing ...

) in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, Yonkers, and Rochester. At the 2020 census, the city's ...

and its satellite station WSYE-TV (now WETM-TV) in

Elmira, New York Elmira () is a city and the county seat of Chemung County, New York, United States. It is the principal city of the Elmira, New York, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Chemung County. The population was 26,523 at the 2020 cens ...

; and WTPA-TV (now

WHTM-TV WHTM-TV (channel 27) is a television station licensed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on North 6th Street i ...

) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The company also entered the field of cable television, servicing the Phoenix and San Diego areas, amongst others. They were originally titled Times-Mirror Cable, and were later renamed to Dimension Cable Television. Similarly, they also attempted to enter the pay-TV market, with the Spotlight movie network; it wasn't successful and was quickly shut down. The cable systems were sold in the mid-1990s to Cox Communications. Times-Mirror also pared its station group down, selling off the Syracuse, Elmira and Harrisburg properties in 1986, to Smith Broadcasting. Times-Mirror briefly held

WMAR-TV WMAR-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios and offices are located on York Road ( ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

and

WRLH-TV WRLH-TV (channel 35) is a television station in Richmond, Virginia, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, it has studios on Westmoreland Street in the North Side area of Richmond, and its transmitter ...

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, Californi ...

, which were acquired alongside the ''Baltimore Sun'', but had to sell off those stations to Gillett Communications to appease FCC's cross-ownership rules. The remaining four outlets were packaged to a new upstart holding company, Argyle Television, in 1993."Times Mirror set to sell four TV'."
''Broadcasting & Cable'', March 22, 1993, pg. 7. These stations were acquired by

New World Communications New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 197 ...

shortly thereafter and became key components in a sweeping shift of network-station affiliations which occurred between 1994–1995.

Stations

Notes: * ¹ Co-owned with

until 1951 in a joint venture (51% owned by Times-Mirror, 49% owned by CBS); * ² Purchased along with KRLD-AM- FM as part of Times-Mirror's acquisition of the '' Dallas Times Herald''. Times-Mirror sold the radio stations to comply with FCC cross-ownership restrictions.

References

{{Authority control Defunct newspaper companies of the United States Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States Mass media companies disestablished in 2000 2000 mergers and acquisitions