Edward W. Scripps built a media empire that includes daily newspapers in 20 markets stretching from Washington to Florida, Scripps Howard News Service, United Media, and the worldwide licensing and syndication home of PEANUTS and DILBERT.
He started the business in 1878, borrowing $10,000 to launch a newspaper in Cleveland called “The Penny Press.” It was aimed at an unserved market of urban workers, and quickly became the model for the nation’s first mass medium. He found a successful formula, and started to build the first chain of newspapers under common ownership.
Today, the E.W. Scripps Company is “a diversified media concern with interests in newspapers, broadcast television stations, cable television networks and other media-related enterprises.”
Ethics was important to Scripps, and he strived to keep his money, business, and life in proper perspective. Learn the 23 code of conduct that E.W. Scripps used in both his life and his business in excerpts from his essay “Some Outlandish Rules for Making Money.”
