Today it has one of the 20 largest paid circulations in the United States.[5] Throughout the 1990s and as recently as 2010, the paper has won nine Pulitzer Prizes for reporting and photography, George Polk Awards for education reporting and regional reporting, and an Overseas Press Club award for photography. Its headquarters is in downtown Dallas.[6]
History
The Dallas Morning News main printing plant and distribution center in Plano, Texas
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.[4]Adolph Ochs, who saved The New York Times from bankruptcy in 1896 and made the newspaper into one of the country's most respected, said in 1924 that he had been strongly influenced by The Dallas Morning News.[4]
During the 1920s, when the Ku Klux Klan was a powerful force in Dallas, The Dallas Morning News pushed back against the KKK with its news coverage and editorials.[4] In turn, the KKK, which had a membership that included one in three eligible Dallas men, threatened to boycott the newspaper.[4]
In 1904, The Dallas Morning News began publishing the Texas Almanac, which had previously been published intermittently during the 1800s by the Galveston Daily News. After over a century of publishing by the Morning News, the Almanac's assets were given to the Texas State Historical Association in May 2008.[7]
Building previously used and occupied by The Dallas Morning News
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 UPON THE ROCK OF TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS CONDUCT IT ALWAYS UPON THE LINES OF FAIRNESS AND INTEGRITY ACKNOWLEDGE THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO GET FROM THE NEWSPAPER BOTH SIDES OF EVERY IMPORTANT QUESTION G. 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]...1879 Alfred H. Belo was investigating the possibility of establishing a sister paper in rapidly developing North Texas. When Belo's efforts to purchase the Herald [an extant paper in Dallas] failed, he sent George Bannerman Dealey to launch a new paper, the Morning News, which began publication on October 1, 1885. From the outset the Morning News enjoyed the double advantage of strong financial support and an accumulation of journalistic experience, and within a month and a half had absorbed its older rival.[8][9]
Al Día logo
In 2003, a Spanish-language newspaper called Al Día was launched by The Dallas Morning News. Initially Al Día came with a purchase price, but it was later made available free of charge. It was published twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturday.[10] Publication ceased in June 2023.[11]
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.[12]
Newspaper vending machine with copies of The Dallas Morning News, in front of a restaurant in northeast Dallas, 2019
Historically, the Morning News' opinion section has tilted conservative, mirroring Texas' drift to the Republican Party since the 1950s.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15] Then, in wake of the approaching 2018 midterm elections, the Morning News once again endorsed a Democratic candidate: Beto O'Rourke, the challenger to incumbent Senator Ted Cruz.[16] In 2024, the Morning News endorsed Colin Allred and referenced Allred's bipartisanship and Cruz's divisiveness.[17][18]
In late 2016, it was announced that The Dallas Morning News would move away from its home of 68 years on Young Street to a building on Commerce Street previously used as the Dallas Public Library's downtown branch. The Commerce Street address is one-third the size of the Young Street complex. 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 (printing is done now mainly at a facility in Plano, north of Dallas).[19][20] By December 2017, the move was completed.[21] The former property at 508 Young was sold in October 2018 to a business partnership, which was looking into possible redevelopment opportunities for the complex,[22][23] but in December 2018 the partnership backed out of the deal.[24]
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.[25][26]
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.[27]
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.[28] 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. A new printing press will be purchased for the new site and should be ready in 2025.[29]
The "Bruh" Incident
On February 11, 2023, Mayor of DallasEric Johnson had posted on Twitter criticizing local news media for, in his view, having "no interest" in reporting on the second year of dropping crime rates in the city of Dallas, prompting responses from multiple local media outlets, including reporters from The Dallas Morning News.[30] Notably, Meghan Mangrum, a then-reporter for The Dallas Morning News posted, "Bruh, national news is always going to chase the trend. Cultivate relationships with quality local news partnerships." Mangrum's tweet elicited criticism from Johnson, who claimed she was "letting [her] inherent biases show",[31] and her black executive director, Katrice Hardy, asked if Mangrum would have used the term "bruh" when addressing a white mayor, to which Mangrum, who is white, affirmed with a yes.[30] Mangrum argued that her use of "bruh" stemmed from her upbringing as a millennial hockey fan from Central Florida,[31] and D Magazine reported that her Twitter feed showed her use of "bruh" in response to "all sorts of accounts".[32]
Mangrum was fired from The Dallas Morning News three days after Johnson's reply for violating the paper's social media policy.[30] This firing coincided with a Dallas NewsGuild-CWA protest, which Mangrum had helped organize.[32] This culminated in the union filing a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board on Mangrum's behalf.[31]
^"Dallas Morning News buys out rival paper". Texas State Historical Association. n.d. [1885-03-12]. Archived from the original on 5 December 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2022. On this day in 1885, the Dallas Morning News bought out its major competitor, the Dallas Herald. The Herald was founded in 1849 by James W. Latimer and William Wallace, who purchased the Paris, Texas, Times and moved it to Dallas. The Herald remained a weekly paper until 1874, when it began publishing an edition every morning except Monday. The Morning News grew out of the Galveston News, established in 1842 by Samuel Bangs. By 1879 Alfred H. Belo, who had acquired control of the business, was investigating the possibility of establishing a sister paper in rapidly developing North Texas. When Belo's efforts to purchase the Herald failed, he sent George Bannerman Dealey to launch a new paper, the Morning News, which began publication on October 1, 1885. From the outset the Morning News enjoyed the double advantage of strong financial support and an accumulation of journalistic experience, and within a month and a half had absorbed its older rival.
^Shinneman, Shawn (7 January 2019). "DMN Announces 43 Layoffs, Nearly Half in Editorial". Media. D Magazine. ISSN0161-7826. LCCNsn78000457. OCLC4020946. Archived from the original on 17 August 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2022. Staff at the Dallas Morning News received word this morning of another round of cuts that includes 43 employees, nearly half of which came from editorial. The corporate speak uses the word "reorganization" and pumps an investment in "technology platforms that support subscribers' online experience." The names have been trickling out.
^Roush, Chris (7 January 2019). "Dallas Morning News is cutting standalone biz news section". Talk Biz News. Archived from the original on 1 August 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2022. The Dallas Morning News will cut its standalone business news section as part of cost-cutting measures at the newspaper. The paper also is laying off 40 staffers, including 20 editorial workers. Two of those workers are business news desk staffers. Metro and Business will be combined into one section Tuesday through Saturday. Top business stories will compete for spots on the cover of the combined section.
^Halkias, Maria (28 February 2019). "Dallas Morning News scales back commercial printing, cuts 92 jobs". The Dallas Morning News. ISSN1553-846X. LCCNsn83045278. OCLC1151529364. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 11 February 2022. The Dallas Morning News is cutting back its commercial printing services and retaining only its biggest clients in order to focus more on its core newspaper business. The decision will result in 92 jobs being eliminated at the company's Plano printing plant, the company said Thursday. Fifty-seven of those positions are currently filled. Employees were told of the job cuts this week and will be offered severance packages. Before the cuts, the plant employed about 350 people.
