About the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Fort Worth Star was founded in 1906 and merged with the Fort Worth Telegram in 1909 to become the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The newspaper bears a rich and colorful legacy tied to the Old West. Its founding publisher, Amon G. Carter Sr., was a renowned booster of Fort Worth and West Texas. In fact, the newspaper was known by a phrase that still resides on its masthead: “Where the West Begins.”
Under Carter’s leadership, the paper served 84 counties in Texas, some by stagecoach. In 1922, the paper began the first Fort Worth radio station, WBAP, “We Bring a Program.” The Star-Telegram also established the first television station in the southern half of the United States in 1948.
The paper was sold in 1974 to Capital Cities Communications, Inc. Under Capital Cities, which later became Capital Cities/ABC, Inc in 1986, the Star-Telegram won two Pulitzer Prizes. The first was in 1981 for photographer Larry Price’s photos of Liberian officials being slain by a firing squad. The second, 1985, was the coveted gold medal Pulitzer for meritorious public service. It was awarded for a news series that exposed a flaw in Bell helicopters that was a factor in numerous crashes over a 17-year period.
In the 1980s the Star-Telegram pioneered an electronic information service: StarText. The “electronic newspaper” started in 1982 and was available on a computer; it would evolve into an Internet website that became star-telegram.com in 1997.
Star-Telegram Operating, Ltd. was sold to Knight Ridder in 1997. McClatchy acquired the newspaper in 2006.
Today, the Star-Telegram reaches more readers than ever before through our website and mobile app, email newsletters, e-edition, video channels and social media accounts. We are mission-focused on serving our subscribers with accountability journalism, breaking news, insightful analysis and essential information you can’t find anywhere else.
Contact our newsroom using this Star-Telegram staff directory. For customer service needs, click here.
McClatchy News Ethics Policy
These ethical guidelines for McClatchy newsrooms outline the values and standards that guide our journalism. No policy can address every conflict that may arise in our day-to-day work. It’s the responsibility of each McClatchy journalist to use good judgment and confer with news managers if the answer to an ethical question is not completely clear.
This story was originally published December 9, 2014 at 4:52 PM.