Laredo Morning Times
Encyclopedia
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
publication based in Laredo, Texas
Laredo, Texas
Laredo is the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, located on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 236,091 making it the 3rd largest on the United States-Mexican border,...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation
Hearst Corporation
The Hearst Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in the Hearst Tower, Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by William Randolph Hearst as an owner of newspapers, the company's holdings now include a wide variety of media...
.
The Laredo Morning Times was founded on June 14, 1881 as "the Laredo Weekly," a four-page newspaper published by James Saunders Penn. Two years later, the paper became a daily as the "Laredo Daily Times." In 1986, William B. Green became only the ninth publisher of the Laredo Morning Times, which started in a corner of a downtown building on Farragut Street in Laredo.
History
During the 125-year run, the afternoon "Laredo Times" became the "Laredo Morning Times." The newspapers, under different names, have covered nearly half of Laredo's history. The city was founded on May 15, 1755.Historians continue to use the newspaper as a primary source for information to learn of Laredo's culture and traditions, all documented for readers and their posterity.
In the same year that the Laredo Morning Times began publication, the Abilene Reporter-News
Abilene Reporter-News
Abilene Reporter-News is a daily newspaper based in Abilene, Texas, USA. The newspaper started publishing three months after Abilene was founded by C.E. Gilbert, effective June 17, 1881. It is hence the oldest continuous business in the city....
and the El Paso Times
El Paso Times
The El Paso Times is the English-language newspaper for the U.S. city of El Paso, Texas. The paper was founded in 1881 by Marcellus Washington Carrico. It originally started out as a weekly but within a year's time, it became the daily newspaper for the frontier town.The newspaper has a daily...
were also born. The Beaumont Journal-Enterprise, began a year earlier in 1880.
The defunct San Antonio Light was the cornerstone paper when William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
expanded his newspaper empire to Texas
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...
in 1881. The Light shut down with the Hearst acquisition of the San Antonio Express-News
San Antonio Express-News
The San Antonio Express-News is the daily newspaper of San Antonio, Texas. It is ranked as the third-largest daily newspaper in the state of Texas in terms of circulation, and is one of the leading news sources of South Texas, with offices in Austin, Brownsville, Laredo, and Mexico City...
.
James Penn, working out of the state capital in Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, established a commercial printing business affiliate in San Antonio. He recognized the economic potential when he chose to bring his equipment to Laredo. His obituary says that he brought his family and equipment in a wagon train
Wagon train
A wagon train is a group of wagons traveling together. In the American West, individuals traveling across the plains in covered wagons banded together for mutual assistance, as is reflected in numerous films and television programs about the region, such as Audie Murphy's Tumbleweed and Ward Bond...
, which arrived on May 1, 1881.
Laredo was experiencing phenomenal growth as a major center of trade on the frontier. South of San Antonio de Bexar, the most promising communities in the region were Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...
, Brownsville
Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville is a city in the southernmost tip of the state of Texas, in the United States. It is located on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Brownsville is the 16th largest city in the state of Texas with a population of...
, and Laredo.
Laredo had been settled near the banks of the Rio Grande for 126 years when the Penn family arrived. Several newspapers had already started on both sides of the border, but these publications did not maintain operations.
The Laredo Morning Times in a new century
On the death of Penn in 1901, his son, Justo S. Penn, took over as publisher and general manager. Arambula said that the Penns, both father and son, blended into the life of the Laredo community. Among other things, the two individually and as heads of the Laredo Times were key players in the development of the city's socioeconomic life. Justo Penn thereafter sold the newspaper to J.E. Hanway of WyomingWyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
in July 1926.
Hanway became the third publisher of the Laredo Times with two business associates, William Prescott Allen of San Antonio and O.W. Killam of Laredo. Arambula found that the operation prospered under Hanway's direction. Hanway brought to Laredo his experience with several newspapers in the West. He reorganized the entire plant at a new location on Matamoros Street and installed modern newspaper equipment, including a press, linotype machines and backshop tools.
Newspaper pages in Spanish
It was under J.E. Hanway's management that SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
was introduced to the newspaper.
Arambula noted that the Laredo Times became the first daily newspaper in Texas to include Spanish material in its news columns and advertisements. The bilingual presentation of information was improved during the William Allen years.
William Prescott Allen, who also published newspapers in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
and Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, improved on Hanway's initiatives. At one time, the newspaper had correspondents in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Guadalajara is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of Jalisco in the western-pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,564,514 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality...
, Monterrey, and Saltillo. He also engaged the services of daily Spanish-language columnists and reporters in Nuevo Laredo
Nuevo Laredo
Nuevo Laredo is a city located in the Municipality of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The city lies on the banks of the Río Grande, across from the United States city of Laredo, Texas. The 2010 census population of the city was 373,725. Nuevo Laredo is part of the Laredo-Nuevo...
, across the Rio Grande from Laredo.
Recent developments
Lincoln National Corporation
Lincoln National Corporation is a Fortune 200 American holding company, which operates multiple insurance and investment management businesses through subsidiary companies...
in 1969-1970. James H. Hale became publisher in 1970. He moved to Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...
, to take over Jefferson-Pilot's paper in that city, the Clearwater Sun. The Times then moved to its present location on Esperanza Drive in north Laredo.
Baker was succeeded as publisher by Marc A. Hoy, who came to Laredo from Beaumont in 1979. Hoy was followed by Mike Herrera.
The acquisition of several Texas properties by the Hearst Corporation included the Laredo Times in 1984. The Times shifted from afternoon to morning publication, and thereafter Frank Bannock, the president of Hearst, chose a former colleague at the San Antonio Light, William B. Green, to leave the Edwardsville Intelligencer
Edwardsville Intelligencer
The Edwardsville Intelligencer is a daily newspaper in Illinois based in Edwardsville. The paper is circulated in Edwardsville, Glen Carbon and nearby rural areas.It was founded in 1862 and was acquired by The Hearst Corporation in 1979....
in Edwardsville
Edwardsville, Illinois
Edwardsville is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 24,293. It is the county seat of Madison County and is the third oldest city in the State of Illinois. The city was named in honor of Ninian Edwards, then Governor of the Illinois...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, to become both publisher and CEO of the Laredo Morning Times. Green took over in the midst of a brewing newspaper war between the Times and the Laredo News, a local family newspaper. The News subsequently ceased publication. The Times acquired the assets of the News, and it remains the only daily newspaper in Laredo.
Elizabeth Sorrell
Elizabeth Sorrell
Elizabeth Nye Sorrell was a high school English teacher for nearly a half century before she launched a second 15-year career as a newspaper society columnist in Laredo, the seat of Webb County in south Texas...
, the acclaimed LMT society columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
from 1979-1994, was a former educator who previously taught for forty-eight years in Laredo. Odie Arambula once declared her the "best known" person in town.
Zapata Times
The Laredo Morning Times started printing the weekly Zapata TimesZapata Times
The Zapata Times is a weekly newspaper publication in Zapata, Texas, USA. It is produced by the Laredo Morning Times which is owned by the Hearst Corporation. The Zapata Times was first published on August 16, 2008 and is delivered every Saturday to 4,000 homes in Zapata County free of...
on August 16, 2008. It is delivered free of charge to 4,000 homes in Zapata County.