The Emergence of Harte-Hanks
 Hanks began in 1920 to widen his newspaper
interests beyond Abilene. In association with Houston Harte of
San Angelo, he undertook the development of what is known as
the Harte-Hanks newspapers.
The Harte-Hanks group expanded
to include Texas newspapers from Corpus Christi to Marshall to
Big Spring. Hanks and Harte each continued their ownership of
their home papers at Abilene and San Angelo, but their joint
holdings grew to be a major news organization.
General manager of the Harte-Hanks
group was Bruce Meador of Abilene. Meador established the Harte-Hanks
headquarters at San Antonio in 1967.
A change in corporate operations
was announced to readers of The Reporter-News on Jan.
31, 1971 by Shelton. He said that 26 Harte-Hanks corporations,
including the Abilene and San Angelo newspaper, had been merged
into a single holding company named Harte-Hanks Newspapers Inc.
A five-man executive committee to direct the new firm would be
Shelton, Meador, Houston Harte of San Angelo and his two sons,
Ed Harte of Corpus Christi and Houston H. Harte of San Antonio.
Prupose of the merger, Shelton
said, was to achieve "benefits in sales, market research
and production technology and to ensure continuit of traditional
newspaper policy in the long-range future."
Robert G. Marbut, president and
chief executive officer of Harte-Hanks, was named to the initial
management team. Stock in the enterprise was offered to the public
in March 1972. The stock became listed on the New York Stock
Exchange in February 1973.
Geographical expansion, internal
improvement of its newspapers, diversification into other fields
of communications were undertaken immediately by Harte-Hanks.
When the first stock was offered
to the public in 1972, Harte-Hanks had expanded into 19 markets
lcoated in six states. That expansion has continued until the
corporation is national in scope.
Computer technology has revolutionized
newspaper production. The Abilene paper, fittingly enough, was
one of the first to embrace this new technology, putting out
its first totally computerized paper on May 15, 1976.
 (The
old Reporter had the first linotype machines in West Texas,
installed the region's first rotary press. During the late 1940s
the Abilene paper, joined by neighboring newspapers, was the
first in the nation to use Teletype, a process developed during
World War II which used perforated tape to operate typesetting
machines.)
Harte-Hanks has greatly diversified
its business interests, although newspapers and related publishing
activities remain its largest area of interest. The firm has
purchased radio and television stations, cable television operations,
shoppers and trade publications, distribution systems and marketing
services companies as it has attempted to be on the leading edge
of the constantly changing communications field. The diversification
prompted a change in name for the corporation in 1977 to Harte-Hanks
Communications, Inc.
 Top officers
for the communications firm in 1980 were Houston H. Harte, chairman
of the board, Marbut, president and chief executive officer;
and Larry D. Franklin, executive vice-president. Directors were
Ed Harte, Houston H. Harte, Myles L. Mace, Marbut, Meador, Shelton,
Franklin, Stuart D. Watson, John G. Johnson and Jewell S. Lafontant.
Shelton was chairman of the executive committee.
NEXT: Harte-Hanks,
The Growing Corporation
(Abridged from Katharyn Duff's
April 19, 1981 "The Story of a Prairie Newspaper" You
can buy this book online from credit card-secured site shopARN.com.)
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