Belo Corporation
Belo Corp. Headquarters
P.O. Box 655237
Dallas, Texas 75265-5237
www.belo.com/
Belo's publishing division is comprised of seven market-leading daily newspapers with a combined circulation of 900,000 million and almost 1.3 million for Sunday subscribers. Included in the lot is the aforementioned Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal (Providence, Rhode Island), The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California), the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Kentucky), The Eagle (Bryan/College Station, Texas), the Arlington Morning News (Arlington, Texas), and The Gleaner (Henderson, Kentucky). Belo's handful of newspapers have received the Pulitzer Prize 11 different times.
The broadcasting division is one of the largest television station groups, owning 17 network-affiliated stations in 12 states, including four in Texas. Of the companies 17 posts, six are CBS affiliates, five are NBC affiliates, four are affiliated with ABC, and two with FOX. Most of Belo's stations are concentrated in the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest. The divisions combined efforts reach 13.6 percent of U.S. households, and according to Nielsen TV ratings, consistently rank first or second in the markets.
In 1999, Belo launched Texas Cable New (TXCN), a 24-hour news network concentrating on state news. The channel reaches about 600,000 subscribers in the Dallas area. Belo owns an additional cable news channel, NorthWest Cable News based in Seattle/Tacoma, WA, and is a partner with two other cable news channels in Virginia and Louisiana. On a different note, this year the company went after a 12 percent stake in the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team, purchased for $24 million.
A. H. BELO CORPORATION. A. H. Belo Corporation, publisher of the Dallas Morning News and the Texas Almanac,qqv is a media corporation encompassing both newspaper publishing and television broadcasting across the country. It is the oldest continuously operated business institution in Texas, having been founded on April 11, 1842, with the first edition of the Daily News in Galveston. Founder Samuel Bangsqv sold the business within a year to Wilbur F. Cherry and Michael Cronican,qqv and Cherry soon acquired sole ownership. Willard Richardsonqv became editor of the paper a few years later and in 1857 founded the Texas Almanac. Alfred Horatio Belo,qv a former Confederate colonel from North Carolina, joined the firm as a bookkeeper after the Civil Warqv and became Richardson's partner in 1866. In 1870 the firm was renamed Richardson, Belo, and Company. In 1876 Belo became sole owner, following Richardson's death the previous year, and renamed the firm A. H. Belo and Company. In 1885 Belo sent George Bannerman Dealey,qv who had joined the Galveston Newsqv as an office boy nine years earlier, to Dallas to establish a sister paper. The Dallas Morning News began publication on October 1, 1885. The Dallas and Galveston papers, linked across 315 miles by telegraph and a network of correspondents that divided the state north and south, heralded the start of "chain journalism." Belo died in 1901, and his son, who succeeded him as head of the company, died in 1906. Dealey continued to head the company on behalf of the Belo heirs, and in 1923 the company sold the Galveston paper, in order to focus its resources on the more thriving newspaper in Dallas. In July 1926, with a few others, G. B. Dealey acquired the company and renamed it A. H. Belo Corporation.
Part of the company's focus in Dallas was radio station WFAA, a "Radio Service of the Dallas Morning News," which began broadcasting on June 26, 1922; WFAA was the first network radio station in Texas. The company sold the last of its radio properties in 1987. In 1963 Belo purchased seven suburban newspapers, the Arlington Daily News, the Garland Daily News, the Grand Prairie Daily News, the Irving Daily News, the Mid-Cities Daily News, the Richardson Daily News, and the Suburban News, since renamed Metrocrest News, which together form the wholly owned subsidiary DFW Suburban Newspapers, Incorporated. Belo entered the television broadcasting business in 1950 with the acquisition of its principal station WFAA-TV, Channel 8, the ABC affiliate in Dallas. The station had begun broadcasting five months earlier as KBTS-TV. In 1984 Belo purchased four television stations from Dun and Bradstreet: KHOU in Houston; KXTV in Sacramento, California; KOTV in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and WVEC in Hampton-Norfolk, Virginia. In 1994 it purchased WWL in New Orleans, Louisiana. In December 1981 A. H. Belo Corporation became a publicly held entity, with its common stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange. In May 1987 the company reincorporated in the State of Delaware, although its headquarters and operations did not move. In December 1991 Belo acquired the assets of the Dallas Times Heraldqv when that paper ceased publication.
G. B. Dealey remained at the helm of the company until his death in 1946, at which time he was succeeded by his widow, Olivia Allen Dealey, who died in 1960. Subsequent chairmen of the board of directors have been E. M. (Ted) Dealey,qv the fourth of Dealey's five children (1960-64); James M. Moroney, husband of the Dealeys' daughter Maidie (1964-68); H. Ben Decherd, grandson of the Dealeys (1968-72); Joe M. Dealey, another grandson of the Dealeys (1980-84); James M. Moroney, Jr., grandson of the Dealeys (1984-86); and, beginning in 1987, Robert W. Decherd, great-grandson of G. B. Dealey. The position of board chairman was vacant from 1972 to 1980. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/AA/ebaph.html
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By Region
The geographic clustering of Belo's media holdings helps us deliver unmatched
regional news coverage to our audiences and unique regional marketing
opportunities to our advertisers.
Television Group
Belo owns 19 television stations reaching 13.8 percent of U.S. television
households, including WFAA-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth, KHOU-TV in Houston, KING-TV
in Seattle/Tacoma and KTVK-TV in Phoenix.
Newspaper Group
Belo owns daily newspapers, including The Dallas Morning News, The Providence
Journal, and The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA), with a combined readership of
2.1 million daily and 2.7 million Sunday.
Belo Interactive
Belo Interactive, Belo's Internet subsidiary, operates more than 30 Web sites,
including some of the most popular local and regional news sites in the United
States.
Cable News
Belo owns two regional cable news channels - Texas Cable News (TXCN) and
NorthWest Cable News (NWCN) reaching more than three million households. Belo
operates four local cable news channels in other markets in partnership with Cox
Communications
http://www.belo.com/companies/
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Monday, April 22, 1991
A.H. Belo Ordered to Pay $58 Million in Libel Lawsuit
By Karen Blumenthal
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street JournalDALLAS- A.H. Belo corp. said that a Waco, Texas, jury awarded a former district attorney $58 million in a libel lawsuit against its broadcasting subsidiary and a former reporter for its Dallas television station.
Media-law specialists said the damages are the largest ever awarded against a media company in a libel case. Damages in libel cases frequently are reduced by the trial judge or an appeals court.
Victor F. Feazell, former McLennan County district attorney, sued Belo Broadcasting Corp. and reporter Charles Duncan in 1986 in state court in Waco. He charged that Mr. Duncan ruined his reputation in a 10-part series that accused Mr. Feazell of taking kickbacks to settle drunken-driving charges. The series, which ran in 1985, was followed by a commentary by one of the station’s anchors.
Mr. Feazell was indicted on bribery and racketeering charges in September 1986, after the series ran and just before he was to run for re-election. He was acquitted of all the charges in June 1987. In an interview, Mr. Feazell, who has argued that the news stories prompted the indictments, said the verdict vindicates him and “sends a message to the rest of the media to get your facts straight.”
Belo, a television and newspaper concern that owns WFAA-TV in Dallas, said it believes there isn’t a “factual basis to support this jury verdict, which involves a public official.” The company said it will ask for a new trial, among other motions, and if necessary, will appeal.
The company also said that the verdict, if upheld, wouldn’t impact its financial results or its financial condition, but it didn’t elaborated. Belo recently reported a first quarter loss of 1.9 million, or 10 cents a share, on revenue of $94.2 million. It blamed the loss on beefed-up coverage and lower advertising revenue related to the Persian Gulf war.
The jury’s verdict included $17 million in actual damages, including $2 million in damage to Mr. Feazell’s business, $9 million in damage to his reputation and $6 million for personal humiliation. The $41 million in punitive damages included $1 million assessed to Mr. Duncan. http://www.rsrwlaw.com/CM/InTheNews/InTheNews494.asp
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WILL THEY ROPE 'EM WITH DIGITAL IN DALLAS?
Excerpt:
WFAA-owner A.H. Belo Corp. Dallas-based Belo is betting big that high-definition TV will help it lasso more viewers, as people begin buyIng the sleek new sets. The company has earmarked $137 million to convert its 17 stations, which stretch from Honolulu to Norfolk, Va., by 2003. Through its affiliation with ABC, WFAA's first high-definition broadcasts will consist mainly of movies and sports. http://www.businessweek.com/1998/43/b3601007.htm
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No Public Record A.H.Belo Corp toxic pollution
On or about Aug 25, 1988 the Dallas Morning News (DMN) Dallas,Tx.(Plano
facility) an A.H.Belo Corp subsidiary had a approximate 10,000 gallon toxic
acetone solvent leak in front of its facility. The MSDS 27 and the Enviromental
Protection Agency (EPA) ID no. F88-2044 for public record purposes. The approx
10,000 gallon toxic solvent leak took approx 10 months to clean up at the
leasure litigation of the A.H.Belo Corp. The toxic underground leak was caused
by the improper installation of the toxic solvent tank underneath the facility.
The possible catastrophic toxic dangers to the public of the toxic discharge is
now being addressed due to the legal threats and intimidation that have been
made to my former atty's over the past ap-prox fourteen (14) years. My last atty
of record Atty John Wall of Dallas, Tx. was blackmailed over this toxic
settlement along with my workmans comp related injury.The community right to
know 40 CFR part 355 of the E.P.A. regs is the focus of this article. I resigned
my em-ployment after this leasure toxic cleanup due to this non public notified
toxic event. The A.H.Belo Corp liability carrier C.N.A. of Dallas, Tx. has
provided excellent blackmail efforts to keep this underground toxic leak and my
workmans comp injury from tarnishing C.N.A.'s legal and financial image among
A.H.Belo's corp lawyers. The E.P.A. was notified by the DMN of this underground
toxic leak and was told that the DMN wouldn't comply with the community write to
know laws due to the hostle litigation of buying the Dallas Times Herald (now
defunct) of that approx time. The A.H.Belo Corp legal ego's also thrive on
blackmail threats of the Dallas legal comm. and its relating gov entities. This
includes the local and state bar assoc along with the TNRCC, ect. Other gov
agancies include the U.S.Atty Office and the Dallas EPA
http://boards.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/WebX.fcgi?14@82.qdihbtRObeO%5E0@.ef06889/172
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Major Media Control
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/major_media.htm
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