In April 1880, Randolph Foster Radebaugh and H.C. Patrick founded the weekly
Tacoma Ledger. Their firm was named Radebaugh & Company. Radebaugh previously worked as a reporter at the
San Francisco Chronicle and a correspondent for the
Cincinnati Commercial. Patrick previously published the
San Jose Republican and then the
Santa Cruz Courier in California. who then expanded the paper into a daily. In April 1882, Mattice sold the paper to Mrs. M.L. Money. In May 1882, Patrick sold his stake in the
Ledger to Radebaugh. who then renamed the latter to
The Weekly Tacoma News and doubled its size. Both papers became dailies in 1883;
The Ledger started daily publication on April 7, with the
News following on September 25. Patrick sold the
News to George R. Epperson for $5,500 in September 1885, who sold it to a ownership group in February 1886. The principal owners of the News Publishing Co., Richard Roediger and William McIntyre. Thomas E. Scantlin bought an interest in fall 1888 and assumed editorial management. In 1896, Snowden formed a company and bought
The Ledger from Nelson. On May 15, 1897, the paper was $70,000 in debt fell into receivership under Major O.B. Hayden, who sold it a month later to C.M. Shultz. In 1898, McIntyre sold the
News to Sidney "Sam" A. Perkins for $18,000. Albert C. Johnson, a writer at
The Washington Post, was named editor. A month later Shultz named Perkins business manager of the
Ledger. A year later Perkins left the
Ledger and Shultz publisher a letter accusing him of corporate sabotage. Shultz sold the paper in December 1899 to ownership group including C. J. Lord, and banker
Mark E. Reed acquired it in May 1900. Perkins acquired the
Ledger from Reed a month later. In 1907, the first phase of construction of the
Perkins Building was completed and
The Ledger and
The News moved in. On June 12, 1908, Radebaugh re-entered the market with the debut of
The Tacoma Daily Tribune. He underestimated the capital needed to run the newspaper successfully By early 1912, its
insolvency had reached $250,000, with
John S. Baker as a principal creditor. Coincidentally, a group including Elbert H. Baker, a cousin of John, and his son Frank S. Baker had just sold the
Boston Traveler to the
Boston Herald; John traveled to his birthplace of
Cleveland and convinced Elbert and Frank to explore a purchase of
The Tribune, with Frank supporting the idea when he conducted an investigation in Tacoma. The Bakers purchased the paper and its debts,
The Tribune became successful at the expense of
The News and the
Tacoma Ledger, with Perkins facing about $400,000 in debt by early 1918. Perkins consulted his creditor, who stated that Tacoma's newspaper market was too saturated and suggested a merger with
The Tribune, which Perkins discussed with Frank S. Baker when they coincidentally found each other on a train to Cleveland. Subsequent negotiations resulted in Baker acquiring the two papers from Perkins, with Baker merging
The News and
The Tribune together to form
The Tacoma News Tribune, its first issue appearing on June 17, 1918.
The Ledger remained a separate Sunday morning paper until 1937. In 1948, the paper began operating the
radio stations
KTNT-AM and KTNT-FM, and in 1953 began operating a
television station with the same call letters. In 1979, the newspaper adopted the name
Tacoma News Tribune. In 1983, its parent company bought the
Pierce County Herald in Puyallup. In October 1985,
McClatchy Newspapers reached an agreement with the Baker family to purchase the Tribune Publishing Company's newspaper assets from them for an estimated $112 million, with the transaction completed on August 1, 1986;
Viacom purchased the remaining assets, including a television franchise and a radio station, at the same time. As of 2001, the
News Tribune was the third largest newspaper in Washington, with a daily circulation of 130,000. The newspaper, alongside sister publication
The Olympian, were printed at a plant in Tacoma until February 3, 2019. Since that time, the newspapers have been printed at the facilities of
The Columbian in
Vancouver, Washington. ==Criticism==