The Kansas City Times was a morning newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri, that was published from 1867 to 1990.
The morning Kansas City Times, under ownership of afternoon The Kansas City Star, won two Pulitzer Prizes and was bigger than its parent when its name was changed to The Star.
History
John Newman Edwards founded The Times in 1867 to support the Democratic Party's anti-Reconstruction policies. Edwards had been adjutant of Confederate general Joseph O. Shelby's division during the Civil War and claimed to have had more horses shot out from under him than anyone else in Shelby's division.
The Kansas City Star ownership 1901â€"1977
William Rockhill Nelson bought The Times on October 19, 1901, mainly because he wanted The Times' Associated Press wire. Nelson then applied a subheading to the newspaper The Morning Kansas City Star and proclaimed that The Kansas City Star empire was a 24-hour-a-day newspaper. In accordance with Nelson's will, employees took over the newspaper in 1926 upon the death of Nelson's daughter.
Capital Cities ownership 1977â€"1990
The Star and Times were locally owned by employees until 1977, when they were sold to Capital Cities. Under the corporate ownership, The Times had higher circulation than its evening brother. Capital Cities made attempts to make the newsrooms appear to compete (even though Kansas City did not have competing dailies since The Kansas City Journal folded in 1942). The Times won its only Pulitzer Prizes in 1982.
Rick Atkinson won an award for"National Reporting". The Times shared an award with The Star for "Local General or Spot New Reporting" for its coverage of the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse.
Demographics across the country showed throughout the 1980s that morning newspapers were consistently stronger than afternoon papers. On March 1, 1990, The Star (which was then under ownership of Capital Cities/ABC) applied its name to the morning paper and The Times name disappeared, and Kansas City no longer had an afternoon daily.
External links
- PBS American Experience Article on John Newman Edwards
