The Abilene Reporter-News has been a trusted news source for the Big Country for over 140 years.
The Reporter-News offers high-quality local news on multiple platforms with a goal of doing more than just telling the story. The newspaper strives to empower our audience with coverage that is meaningful to the community while taking an ethical approach to providing context that helps readers make informed decisions.
In doing so, we seek to continue our legacy as an essential resource that provides value to our readers’ lives. Whether we’re going beyond the field with local athletes from area high schools, covering breaking news or providing insight into local government, our award-winning team is dedicated to accuracy, accountability, independence and community value.
The paper prints six days a week, but our digital platforms provide our audience with the latest news, sports and features 24/7.
What platforms are the Abilene Reporter-News on?
We are a news organization that distributes our content on multiple platforms. We have a print edition with full access to our digital products, including our eNewspaper and all Premium stories on our website, reporternews.com.
You can get all our news on our newsletters here, and make the Reporter-News your Google Preferred Source when looking for Abilene-area news and information by using this link: Source preferences.
You can also find Reporter-News content on these social channels:
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Who owns the Abilene Reporter-News?
The Reporter-News is owned by the Gannett Corp., which is part of the USA Today Network.
The oldest existing business in the city of Abilene, the Abilene Reporter-News was founded by Charles Edwin Gilbert from Navasota, Texas, and printed its first edition on June 17, 1881, at the Abilene Steam Printing House.
Two months after starting the paper, a fire destroyed several buildings in Abilene, including Gilbert’s office. He rode the train 21 miles east to Baird and used a borrowed printing press to produce an extra edition on the fire.
Two other Abilene papers also began publication in the 1880s. Part-time preacher W.L. Gibbs began the Magnetic Quill in 1882. Three years later, Gilbert’s printer, James L. Lowry, began the Taylor County News. One of Lowry’s early editions covered a duel between Gilbert and Gibbs, both of whom survived.
In 1885, the Reporter-News became a daily newspaper. Newspaper lore has it that ARN, as it is known today, was the first paper in Texas to ban whiskey advertisements and to be in the forefront of American journalism in using special columns for classified advertising.
The newspaper, owned in the early 1920s by Bernard Hanks, became one of the two original flagships of the Harte-Hanks newspaper chain in 1924. In 1937, the company merged Abilene’s morning paper, the Morning News, with the afternoon Daily Reporter to form the Abilene Reporter-News. The newspaper published morning and evening editions into the 1980s.
The E.W. Scripps Company bought the newspaper, along with the other Texas-based Harte-Hanks papers, in 1997. In 2015, Scripps spun off its newspaper assets to Journal Media Group, and a year later the Abilene Reporter-News was purchased by Gannett Inc.
The Reporter-News was the third newspaper in Texas, behind the Austin American-Statesman and Dallas Morning News, to join the information superhighway and, of the three, only Abilene and Austin updated their websites with news daily at that time. The website launched Feb. 6, 1995, on a web server at Abilene Christian University and consisted of six pages.
How can I reach the Reporter-News?
Customer support can be reached at 1-844-900-7098 or go to help.reporternews.com/contact-us.
To contact us, go to our staff directory here: www.reporternews/contact/staff.
If you have a news tip, please email publishme@reporternews.com.
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This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: The Abilene Reporter-News is your premier source for Big Country news. Here’s what to know
Reporting by Abilene Reporter-News / Abilene Reporter-News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
