Private | |
Industry | Media |
Fate | Acquired by Argyle Television (sold to New World Communications in 1994) |
Founded | 1946 (as KTTV, Inc.) |
Defunct | 1993 (inactive, 1963–1970) |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
Products | Broadcast and cable television |
The Times Mirror Company was an American newspaper and print media publisher. It had its roots in the Mirror Printing and Binding House, a commercial printing company founded in 1873, and the Los Angeles Times (originally the Los Angeles Daily Times), which was first published in 1881 and printed by the aforementioned company. The two operations were purchased and combined in 1884 to form the Times Mirror Company.
In 1960, Times Mirror acquired New American Library (NAL) and later sold it in 1983 to Odyssey Partners, a private investing group, and Ira J. Hechler, a private investor.
As of 1983, Times Mirror owned not only the Los Angeles Times but also The Denver Post, The Dallas Times Herald and the Hartford Courant. Times Mirror also owned C.V. Mosby Company which published college textbooks and reference books. They also owned Harry N. Abrams—a publisher of art and photography books.
Subsequent acquisitions, such as air navigation publisher Jeppesen in 1961 and The Baltimore Sun in 1986, expanded the company's portfolio. The company was acquired by the Tribune Company in 2000.
The Times-Mirror Company was a founding owner of television station KTTV in Los Angeles, which opened in January 1949. It became that station's sole owner in 1951, after re-acquiring the minority shares it had sold to CBS in 1948. Times-Mirror also purchased a former motion picture studio, Nassour Studios, in Hollywood in 1950, which was then used to consolidate KTTV's operations. Later to be known as Metromedia Square, the studio was sold along with KTTV to Metromedia in 1963.
After a seven-year hiatus from the medium, the firm reactivated Times-Mirror Broadcasting Company with its 1970 purchase of the Dallas Times Herald and its radio and television stations, KRLD-AM-FM-TV in Dallas. The Federal Communications Commission granted an exemption of its cross-ownership policy and allowed Times-Mirror to retain the newspaper and the television outlet, which was renamed KDFW-TV.