Fort Worth Star Telegram
Fort Worth Star Telegram is the main daily newspaper issued in Fort Worth for the western part of North Texas with the eastern area dominated by the rival publication Dallas Morning News. It goes without saying that very tight competition exists between the two newspapers that claim prominence over their part of the United States. Presently, the Fort Worth Star Telegram is the property of The McClatchy Company, but its history goes back at the beginning of the 20th century when the first edition of the newspaper saw the light of the day. It all started with Amon G. Carter being hired as an advertising space salesman in Fort Worth, and in a few months he got to finance and run the town's newspaper that finally came in print on February 1, 1906.
The initial name was the Fort Worth Star, and it did not have the success Carter had expected. Given the fact that the newspaper was losing money severely, Carter took the decision of buying its competitor the Fort Worth Telegram, and this is how the Fort Worth Star Telegram came into being at the beginning of 1909. Between 1923 and the aftermath of the Second World War, The Fort Worth Star Telegram covered one of the largest distribution areas in the South of the United States.
West Texas, New Mexico and the western part of Oklahoma were reading the Fort Worth Star Telegram during the period. In 1948, the newspaper supported and actually put into practice the creation of the first television station in Texas, WBAP-TV. The Carter family continued to run the newspaper for three more decades, but in 1974, they sold it to Capital Cities Communications, the group that also bought the ABC TV network. The Fort Worth Star Telegram changed owners again as the Capital Cities/ABC group was purchased by The Walt Disney Company.
It was only in June 2006 that the Star Telegram came into the possession of its present owner. The circulation area of the publication is surely reduced as compared to its early history, but the situation is explainable given the large number of newspapers, magazines and tabloids that serve the American market daily. The newspaper can also be accessed online, and it is the oldest American publication with Internet operation. Presently, the Fort Worth Star Telegram undergoes all sorts of market adaptations both in the electronic and the paper format so that it may be perceived as both reader friendly and quality promoter.