Houston Chronicle for sale?

Usually advertisers realize they don't need to advertise in both papers, and they pick the one with the more upscale readership.

The Houston Post suffered through some bad sales. The Toronto Sun company bought the paper in 1983 and tried a loud, almost tabloid-style approach* that didn't work very well in Houston. They gave up in 1987 and sold to Dean Singleton, who did not really spend any money to make the paper more competitive with the Chronicle and ran into financial problems when the price of newsprint increased dramatically. Singleton already had an offer of $120 million from Hearst, owner of the Houston Chronicle, when he sought other buyers for the Post, possibly just to satisfy the Justice Department, although Singleton maintained he was legitimately trying to find a buyer who would keep the Post alive. He had some interest from Belo, owner of The Dallas Morning News, which offered $70 million and then withdrew the bid. But his only other offer was from Hearst, which bought the Post's assets and thus acquired a monopoly.

*I talked to them about a sports layout job at the time, but we ended our discussions when I was told that candidates had to pay their own way for an interview, unbelievable for a newspaper that size.

 

The rumour I heard was that there's chronic for sale in Houston.

 

Houston is a bad sports town? It's not as good Chicago, but it's not Atlanta either.
The Texans, despite their horrible play for five years, have sold out every game. Yes, they've had some empty seats, but who could blame fans for not coming to watch that crap? The Astros drew over 3 million last season and they were under .500 most of the year. The support for the Rockets has waned since the mid '90s but is picking back up now that they're winning. The city has three new sports arenas, all courtesy of tax payers.
The city has hosted the Super Bowl, the MLB All-Star Game, the NBA All-Star Game and the World Series within the past 3 years, as well as many top tennis and golf events (Tour Championship a couple of years back). The Final Four is coming in a few years.
As far as college sports go, the passion lies with Texas A&M, which is 90 miles away, and Texas, which has a huge alumni base in Houston. Rice and UH play second fiddle.
When it comes to bad sports towns, Houston isn't at the top of the list, but certainly isn't close to the bottom.

 

This paper may not be the best in Texas, but it's certainly loads better since it was before the redesign. It could be better, sure.