Founded by
Houston Harte and
Bernard Hanks in 1923 as
Harte-Hanks Newspapers (and later
Harte-Hanks Communications), the company spent its first 50 years operating
newspapers in Texas. In 1968, the company relocated from Abilene to San Antonio. It made its first
IPO on March 8, 1972, Other early acquisitions in the 1920s and 1930s included the
Harlingen Star,
Corpus Christi Times,
Big Spring Herald, and
Paris News. The company incorporated as
Harte-Hanks Newspapers, Inc. in 1948. The company bought two competing newspapers in
Greenville, Texas, in the mid-1950s, consolidating them into the
Herald-Banner after two years of fierce rivalry. A court case followed, with Harte Hanks accused of unfair competition. The chain was acquitted of the charges in 1959. In 1962, the company took full ownership of
San Antonio Express-News, its largest-circulation newspaper. The
Express-News was one of the first properties Harte Hanks sold off, however, as it began to narrow its focus to smaller newspapers and eventually to direct marketing.
Rupert Murdoch paid $19 million for the
Express-News in 1973. The paper expanded outside of Texas that year with the purchase of the
Anderson Independent and
Anderson Daily Mail of
Anderson, South Carolina, merging them into the
Anderson Independent-Mail. By 1980, the company owned 29 daily and 68
weekly newspapers. It had owned the
News since 1972 and bought the
News-Tribune and
Daily Transcript in 1986. The Abilene, Anderson, Corpus Christi, and San Angelo papers, among the last remaining Harte Hanks newspaper properties, were sold to
E. W. Scripps Company in May 1997. Scripps spun off its newspaper assets into the
Journal Media Group in April 2015. Journal was then absorbed into
Gannett in April 2016.
Television and radio The company made its first foray into other media as early as 1962, when Harte Hanks bought
KENS-AM-
TV, San Antonio's
CBS radio and television affiliates, as part of its acquisition of the
Express-News. with a circulation at one time of 13 million weekly in 1,100 separate editions of
The PennySaver and
The Flyer in
California and
Florida, respectively. The company sold
The Flyer to
Coda Media in 2012, having owned it since 1983.
The PennySaver and website PennySaverUSA.com, a nationwide network of local advertising content online for consumers and businesses, were sold to
OpenGate Capital in 2013. Harte Hanks had owned the publication since 1972. In 2006, Harte Hanks acquired Global Address, a software company based in the United Kingdom that developed international address-validation technology. In 2008, Global Address was renamed to Trillium Software, which was later sold to
Syncsort in 2016. In 2008, Harte Hanks acquired Mason Zimbler, a UK-based digital marketing and media provider. In 2008, Harte Hanks acquired Strange & Dawson, a UK-based digital advertising service. In 2010, Harte Hanks acquired Information Arts, a UK-based data insight, data management, and database-marketing firm. In 2015, Harte Hanks acquired San Mateo, California-based digital marketing firm 3Q Digital. In 2018, Harte Hanks sold 3Q back to an entity owned by previous 3Q Digital owners. == Notes ==