Houston Press (Scripps Howard)
Encyclopedia
The Houston Press was a Scripps Howard afternoon newspaper, founded in 1911, in Houston, Texas
. Under the leadership of founding editor Paul C. Edwards (1911-1916), Marcellus E. Foster, known as "Mefo" (1927-1937), and George Carmack (1946-1964), the newspaper developed a reputation for flashy stories about violence and sex and for exposés of political malfeasance. It ceased publication in 1964.
Notable former staff members included Walter Cronkite, who later became the CBS news anchor; Thomas Thompson, author of "Hearts" and "Blood and Money"; Donald Forst, later editor of New York Newsday and The Village Voice; Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and biographer Vance H. Trimble; columnists Sig Byrd ("The Stroller") and Carl Victor Little ("By The Way"); gossip columnist Maxine Mesinger; and television crusader Marvin Zindler
, who once worked there as a photographer covering crime stories. Joseph Agris, who became Zindler's biographer, said about the Houston Press "a paper that, by journalistic standards, had no standards at all."
In 1963, the year before it closed, The Press had an average daily circulation (Monday-Saturday) of 90,000, and it employed 300 people. On March 20, 1964, editor Carmack and Business Manager Ray L. Powers announced that the paper had been sold to the rival Houston Chronicle
for a price estimated as more than $4 million.
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Under the leadership of founding editor Paul C. Edwards (1911-1916), Marcellus E. Foster, known as "Mefo" (1927-1937), and George Carmack (1946-1964), the newspaper developed a reputation for flashy stories about violence and sex and for exposés of political malfeasance. It ceased publication in 1964.
Notable former staff members included Walter Cronkite, who later became the CBS news anchor; Thomas Thompson, author of "Hearts" and "Blood and Money"; Donald Forst, later editor of New York Newsday and The Village Voice; Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and biographer Vance H. Trimble; columnists Sig Byrd ("The Stroller") and Carl Victor Little ("By The Way"); gossip columnist Maxine Mesinger; and television crusader Marvin Zindler
Marvin Zindler
Marvin Harold Zindler was a news reporter for television station KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas, United States. His investigative journalism, through which he mostly represented the city's elderly and working class, made him one of the city's most influential and well-known media personalities.-Early...
, who once worked there as a photographer covering crime stories. Joseph Agris, who became Zindler's biographer, said about the Houston Press "a paper that, by journalistic standards, had no standards at all."
In 1963, the year before it closed, The Press had an average daily circulation (Monday-Saturday) of 90,000, and it employed 300 people. On March 20, 1964, editor Carmack and Business Manager Ray L. Powers announced that the paper had been sold to the rival Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
for a price estimated as more than $4 million.