The Dallas Morning News was founded in 1885 as a spin-off of the
Galveston Daily News by
Alfred Horatio Belo. In 1926, the Belo family sold a majority interest in the paper to its longtime publisher,
George Dealey. By the 1920s,
The Dallas Morning News had grown larger than the
Galveston Daily News and had become a progressive force in Dallas and Texas. By the late 1940s, the
Morning News had built and opened a new office, newsroom, and printing plant at Houston and Young Streets on the southwest side of
downtown Dallas. A notable part of the facade above the front doors includes a quote etched in the stony exterior: ::::::BUILD THE NEWS UPONTHE ROCK OF TRUTHAND RIGHTEOUSNESSCONDUCT IT ALWAYSUPON THE LINES OFFAIRNESS AND INTEGRITYACKNOWLEDGE THE RIGHTOF THE PEOPLE TO GETFROM THE NEWSPAPERBOTH SIDES OF EVERYIMPORTANT QUESTIONG. B. DEALEY The complex at 508 Young Street would house all or part of the
Morning News operations for the next six decades. In late 1991,
The Dallas Morning News became the lone major newspaper in the Dallas market when the
Dallas Times Herald was closed after several years of circulation wars between the two papers, especially over the then-burgeoning classified advertising market. In July 1986, the
Times Herald was purchased by
William Dean Singleton, owner of
MediaNews Group. After 18 months of efforts to turn the paper around, Singleton sold it to an associate. On December 8, 1991,
Belo Corporation bought the
Times Herald for $55 million, closing the paper the next day. It was not the first time the Belo family had bought and closed a paper named
The Herald in Dallas. In 2003,
The Dallas Morning News launched a
Spanish-language newspaper called
Al Día . Initially
Al Día came with a purchase price, but it was later made available free. It was published twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday. Publication ceased in June 2023. Between 2003 and 2011, a
tabloid-sized publication called
Quick was published by
The Dallas Morning News, which initially focused on general news in a quick-read, digest form, but in later years covered mostly entertainment and lifestyle stories. In late 2013,
The Dallas Morning News ended its longtime news-gathering collaboration with previously co-owned TV station
WFAA. The newspaper entered into a new partnership with
KXAS at that time. Historically, the
Morning News' opinion section has tilted conservative, mirroring Texas' drift to the
Republican Party since the 1950s. However, on September 7, 2016, it endorsed
Hillary Clinton for president, the first time it had recommended a
Democrat for president since
Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. This came a day after it ran a scathing editorial declaring Republican candidate
Donald Trump "not qualified to serve as president." It was the first time the paper had refused to recommend a Republican since 1964. Then, ahead of the
2018 midterm elections, the
Morning News once again endorsed a Democratic candidate:
Beto O'Rourke, the challenger to incumbent Senator
Ted Cruz. In 2024, the
Morning News endorsed
Colin Allred and referenced Allred's
bipartisanship and Cruz's divisiveness. In late 2016,
The Dallas Morning News announced it would move away from its home of 68 years on Young Street to a much-smaller
building on Commerce Street previously used as the Dallas Public Library's downtown branch. Reasons given for the move included technology innovations and fewer staff, as well as printing presses no longer co-located with the newsroom and main offices. By December 2017, the move was completed. The former property was sold in October 2018 to a business partnership, which was looking into possible redevelopment opportunities for the complex, but in December 2018 the partnership backed out of the deal. Changes were announced in January 2019, which included layoffs and reducing the paper's Business section to one separate section per week, on Sundays; the remainder of the week, Business coverage was placed in the paper's Metro section. A total of 43 employees were affected by the move. In late February 2019, several printing agreements were not renewed at the
Morning News' suburban printing plant, and 92 positions were affected by the change there. Publications that had to find a different printing partner included the
Dallas Observer and
Fort Worth Weekly.
DallasNews Corporation, the paper's owner, announced on Sept. 13, 2023, it would offer buyouts eliminating up to 40 jobs, a 6% reduction in staff count. Buyouts would be offered starting Oct. 16. In May 2024, the company announced it would move its
Plano printing operation, built in 1980, to a smaller facility in
Carrollton. This would result in the elimination of 85 jobs, a 60% staff reduction. The changes were expected to save the company $5 million annually. The News reported in December 2024 it had agreed to sell the Plano location for $43.5 million. A new printing press will be purchased for the new site and should be ready in 2025. In July 2025,
Hearst Communications announced it had agreed to purchase DallasNews Corporation for $14 a share. A few weeks later
Alden Global Capital submitted a competing bid for $16.50 a share, which was rejected by the DallasNews board. Alden then submitted a letter threatening to take their offer directly to DallasNews shareholders. The merger with Hearst was completed on September 24, 2025, after DallasNews shareholders approved the transaction the previous day. After the sale closed, Hearst laid off 26 employees. ==Awards==