Cowles Company#Cowles Montana Media Company

File:Review Tower Spokane.jpg

William H. Cowles came to Spokane at age 24 to be the business manager of the Spokesman, which was founded less than two years before, and excelled at local news coverage. He had experience as a police reporter for the Chicago Tribune and was the son of the Tribune{{'s}} treasurer, Alfred Cowles Sr. He soon bought the Spokesman from his partners. In 1893, he bought a rival paper, the Review, and merged the two papers into The Spokesman-Review. He acquired the Spokane Chronicle in 1897.

According to Time in 1952, he was a "determined man" who had an artificial leg yet walked two miles to the office each day.{{cite news|title=The Inland Empire's Voice|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,815817,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108022812/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,815817,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 8, 2012|work=Time|date=January 7, 1952|access-date=October 28, 2007}}

Cowles set the Chronicle on a course to be independent, and The Spokesman-Review to support Republican Party causes. Time magazine related the paper's success gaining lowered rates for freight carried to the Northwest United States and an improved park system and that helped the region. Increasing its reputation for comprehensive local news and by opposing "gambling, liquor and prostitution", The Spokesman-Review gained popularity. The paper's opposition to building the Grand Coulee Dam was not quite so universally applauded and when it opposed the New Deal and the Fair Deal, it so disturbed President of the United States Harry Truman that he declared the Spokesman-Review to be one of the "two worst" newspapers in the United States.{{cite news|title=When Harry Gave Us Hell|url=http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/video/archive.asp?mon=Sep2007|work=The Spokesman-Review|publisher=Cowles Publishing Company|date=September 7, 2007|access-date=August 19, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100812102316/http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/video/archive.asp?mon=Sep2007|archive-date=August 12, 2010|url-status=dead}} The Scripps League's Press closed in 1939, making Cowles the only newspaper publisher in Spokane. Cowles created four weeklies, the Idaho Farmer, Washington Farmer, Oregon Farmer and Utah Farmer. Cowles died in 1946. When William H. Cowles Jr. succeeded his father as publisher, James Bracken received much more news and editorial control as managing editor. William H. Cowles III succeed his father as publisher.{{Cite news |last=Ferrendelli |first=Betta |date=2001-11-11 |title=Four generations of Cowles built diverse empire |work=Puget Sound Business Journal |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2001/11/12/focus3.html}}

The original Review Building, designed by Seaton & Ferris in 1891 in a style closest to Richardson Romanesque, is ten stories with a tower that reaches {{convert|146|ft|m|0}}. In 1975, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.{{cite web|title=Review Building|url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=reviewbuilding-spokane-wa-usa|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070101234646/http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=reviewbuilding-spokane-wa-usa|url-status=usurped|archive-date=January 1, 2007|publisher=Emporis|access-date=October 18, 2007}}

Cowles' television operations are centered around the two NBC affiliates in eastern Washington. The flagship is KHQ-TV in Spokane, which was founded by Cowles as Washington's second television station. Cowles also owns KNDO in Yakima and its Tri-Cities semi-satellite KNDU (licensed to Richland).{{cite news|title=Business in brief: Cowles Co. buying California stations|url=http://www.spokesmanreview.com/business/story.asp?ID=211549|date=September 26, 2006|work=The Spokesman-Review|publisher=Cowles Publishing Company|access-date=October 28, 2007}}{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} As of September 2007, Cowles planned to acquire two CBS affiliate television stations for US$41 million from Newport Television, one of the holding companies formed by Providence Equity Partners when Providence planned to acquire the television stations owned by Clear Channel Communications. They are KCOY-TV in Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo, California and KION-TV in Monterey, California. KION carries The CW on a separate digital channel. Cowles would also have a management agreement with KCBA, the Fox affiliate serving Salinas, Monterey and Santa Cruz, California, and would acquire two low power stations, KKFX-CA, also Fox in San Luis Obispo, California and the Telemundo affiliate KMUV-LP in Monterey.{{cite news|title=Cowles Buying California TV Stations|url=http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/09/26/daily.3/?promo|date=September 26, 2007|publisher=TV Newsday|access-date=October 25, 2007}} The deal closed on May 7, 2008.

On September 20, 2013, News-Press & Gazette Company announced that it would purchase Monterey stations, KION-TV and KMUV-LP, as well as San Luis Obispo station KKFX-CA. NPG will also take over some of the operations of Santa Maria sister station KCOY-TV, which Cowles will retain, under a shared services agreement (as NPG's holdings in the area already include KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara).{{cite news|title=KCOY to 'share services' with KEYT parent company under planned station purchases|url=http://santamariatimes.com/news/local/kcoy-to-share-services-with-keyt-parent-company-under-planned/article_31dfbe0e-24b4-11e3-94d8-001a4bcf887a.html|access-date=September 24, 2013|newspaper=Santa Maria Times|date=September 23, 2013}} The existing LMA for KCBA was terminated on December 1, 2013, as that station's operations were assumed by Entravision Communications through a joint sales agreement (the license was retained by Seal Rock Broadcasters). On September 30, 2013, Cowles announced that it would acquire Max Media's Montana television station cluster for $18 million.[http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1580152&Service=DT&Form_id=314&Facility_id=14675 Application For Consent To Assignment Of Broadcast Station Construction Permit Or License] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219121216/http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1580152&Service=DT&Form_id=314&Facility_id=14675 |date=December 19, 2013 }} "Federal Communications Commission", October 1, 2013[http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1576079&Service=DT&Form_id=314&Facility_id=26249 Application For Consent To Assignment Of Broadcast Station Construction Permit Or License] "Federal Communications Commission", October 1, 2013 The sale was finalized on November 29.

In October 2022, Cowles introduced the standardized branding NonStop Local for all of its stations' news programming, as part of an effort to promote them as multi-platform news sources.{{Cite web |title=Washington, Montana stations consolidate under ‘NonStop Local’ brand |url=https://www.newscaststudio.com/2022/10/26/nonstop-local-branding-cowles-q6-khq/?og=1 |access-date=2022-10-30 |website=NewscastStudio |language=en-US}}

{{Main|NonStop Local}}

(**) - indicates a station built and signed on by Cowles.

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• Basic Financial Solutions
• Citizens Realty
• Inland Empire Paper Company
• Spokane Journal of Business
• River Park Square
• Nickels Worth Publications
• Northwest Farmer-Stockman
• Print Marketing Concepts
• The Spokesman-Review
• Spokane Daily Chronicle
• SWX Right Now

The Cowles family of Spokane is descended from Elizabeth (1827–1910) and Sarah Hutchinson (1837–1884) of Cayuga County, New York.{{Citation needed|date=October 2007}} The two sisters married two brothers, Alfred Cowles Sr. and Edwin Cowles of Cleveland, Ohio. Edwin published the Cleveland Leader and Alfred moved to Chicago, Illinois where he purchased one third of the Chicago Tribune.{{cite book|author=White, James Terry|title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/nationalcyclopa01whitgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/nationalcyclopa01whitgoog/page/n255 224]|publisher=James T. White & Company, via New York Public Library via Internet Archive full view|year=1895|access-date=October 24, 2007}} and {{cite book|author=Robert Norton Smith|title=Chapter 1, The Colonel, The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick 1880-1955|url=https://archive.org/details/colonellifelegen00smit|date=June 10, 1997|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Co. via The New York Times Company|isbn=0-395-53379-1|access-date=October 24, 2007|url-access=registration}}

Feminist and educator Betsy Mix Cowles was Alfred and Edwin's paternal aunt. Edwin's sons Alfred and Eugene were chemists and metallurgists who invented and operated electric arc smelters to extract aluminum. Alfred Cowles, 3rd—the grandson of Alfred Sr.—founded the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics following the Great Depression.

Distantly related, the Cowles family of Spokane are about sixth cousins of the family of Gardner Cowles Sr. of Des Moines, Iowa and Minneapolis, Minnesota who owned Cowles Media Company. Both Cowles publishing families are descendants of Hannah Bushoup (c.1613-1683) of Hartford, Connecticut and John Cowles (1598–1675) of Gloucestershire, England.

Alfred Cowles and Sarah Frances Hutchinson had four children: Edwin (1861–1861), Alfred Jr. (1865–1939), Sarah Frances (1862–1920), and William Hutchinson (1866–1947). William married Harriet Bowen Cheney, and became a newspaper publisher in Spokane, Washington. William is also the grandfather of William H. Cowles III.

File:Alfred Cowles Sr-Tribune Co.jpg|Alfred Cowles Sr. of the Chicago Tribune, father of William H. Cowles

File:Edwin-Cowles-small.jpg|Edwin Cowles of the Cleveland Leader, brother of Alfred Cowles. Sr.

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{{Portal|Journalism|Television}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.cowlescompany.com/ Cowles Company]
• [https://archive.today/20140220015511/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=4322685 Company Overview of Cowles Company]

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Category:American companies established in 1894

Category:Companies based in Spokane, Washington

Category:Manufacturing companies based in Washington (state)

Category:Mass media companies of the United States

Category:Television broadcasting companies of the United States

Category:1894 establishments in Washington (state)