The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas Morning News

The April 24, 2010 front page of The Dallas Morning News
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	A. H. Belo Corporation
Publisher	James M. Moroney III
Editor	Robert W. Mong, Jr.
Founded	1885
Headquarters	508 Young Street Dallas, Texas 75202  United States
Circulation	264,459 Daily 373,815 Sunday[1]
Official website	www.DallasNews.com

The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas (USA) area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the Galveston Daily News, of Galveston, Texas.^[2][3][4] Today it has one of the 20 largest paid circulations in the United States. Throughout the 1990s and as recently as 2010, the DMN has won numerous Pulitzers for both reporting and photography, George Polk Awards for education reporting and regional reporting, and an Overseas Press Club award for photography. The company has its headquarters in Downtown Dallas.^[5]

Dominant Dallas newspaper

In late 1991, the DMN became the lone major newspaper in the Dallas market, when its rival the Dallas Times Herald was closed after several years of hard-fought circulation wars between the two papers, especially over the then-burgeoning classified advertising market. In July of 1986, the Times Herald was purchased by a fledgling newspaper impresario, the controversial William Dean Singleton, owner of MediaNews Group. After 18 months of tepid efforts to turn the paper around, Singleton sold it to an associate. On 8 December 1991, Belo bought the Times Herald for $55 million, closing the paper the next day.

Dallas Morning News distribution center in Plano, TX

The fact that Singleton had begun his newspaper career at the Morning News in the 1970s fueled speculation DMN had been behind the entire sale and closure of their rival paper. While the News obviously stood to benefit, no evidence was ever proffered of behavior outside the bounds of the admittedly rough newspaper trade.

It was not the first time the Belo family had bought (and closed) a paper named The 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 the Herald [an extant paper in Dallas] 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.^{[6] [7]}

Circulation controversy

The Dallas Morning News has been accused of inflating its circulation numbers to keep advertiser revenue high.^{[citation needed]} In the mid-1980s, the paper was sued by the rival Times Herald, charging that the News was overstating circulation increases. In 2004, long after the Times Herald had ceased printing, The Dallas Morning News admitted it had indeed underreported circulation decreases, and had overstated Sunday circulation by 11.9% and daily circulation by 5.1%. The Morning News promised to pay advertisers US$23 million in restitution. The circulation problems worsened parent company Belo's financial condition. In late 2004, Belo Corporation laid off 250 workers, including 150 at the Morning News. Two years later, The News offered a voluntary severance package which was taken by more than 100 staffers. The newspaper has continued to lay off employees, most recently in October 2008 and April 2009.

In September 2010, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported that The Dallas Morning News had a circulation of 264,459 (Monday through Friday) for a six-month period ending in September 30,2010. That figure represented a 0.25 percent gain in paid circulation compared with the same period the year prior.The News, once among the top 10 newspapers in America, is now the country's 16th largest newspaper, according to the Bureau of Circulations.

Awards

Pulitzer Prizes

• 1986: National Reporting
• 1989: Explanatory Journalism
• 1991: Feature Photography
• 1992: Investigative Reporting
• 1993: Spot News Photography
• 1994: International Reporting
• 2004: Breaking News Photography
• 2006: Breaking News Photography
• 2010: Editorial Writing

George Polk Awards

• 1990: Gayle Reaves, David Hanners, and David McLemore for regional reporting
• 1994: Olive Talley for education reporting

Overseas Press Club Awards

• 2001: Cheryl Diaz Meyer for photographic reporting from abroad

Editorial staff

• James M. Moroney III; Publisher and Chief Executive Officer
• Robert W. Mong, Jr.; Editor
• George Rodrigue; Vice President, Managing Editor
• Keven Ann Willey; Vice President, Editorial Page Editor

NeighborsGo

In April 2005, The Dallas Morning News launched four editions of a weekly newspaper called "Neighbors." The response to this reader-generated newspaper was positive enough that, by the end of 2006, 12 more "Neighbors" were being published. The publication was rebranded as neighborsgo. As of April 10, 2009, neighborsgo publishes 18 weekly print editions with a combined circulation of more than 250,000 copies. More than 15,500 area residents are members of the neighborsgo Web site where users can upload news content that editors "reverse publish" into the weekly print edition.

Prices

The News prices are: $1 Daily, $3 Sunday.

References

1. ^ http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9J2TJ8G0.htm
2. ^ Galveston Daily News: Daily News Firsts
3. ^ Handbook of Texas: Galveston News
4. ^ Galveston Daily News: History of the Daily News
5. ^ "Contact Us." The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved on November 21, 2009.
6. ^ Alfred H. Belo, Texas Handbook On-Line
7. ^ "Dallas Morning News buys out rival paper", Texas Day by Day, 3 Dec 1885

External links

	Dallas-Fort Worth portal
	Journalism portal

• The Dallas Morning News
• DMN mobile site
• Dallas Morning News from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Dallas Morning News Building Photos