Houston Pest (Houston Post nickname)

The Houston Post was a daily newspaper published in the city of Houston from the 1880s until 1995. The Post’s nickname of Houston Pest is cited in print from at least 1993.
 
The Houston Post’s newspaper rival, the Houston Chronicle, has been nicknamed the Comical, and Houston newspaper readers had a choice between the “Pest” and the “Comical” until 1995.
 
 
Wikipedia: Houston Post
The Houston Post was a newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States that was established on February 19, 1880, by Gail Borden Johnson.
 
Though that original publication ceased in October 1884, the Houston Post was re-established with the merger of the Houston Morning Chronicle and the Houston Evening Journal on April 5, 1885. J. L. Watson was the business manager and Rienzi M. Johnston was the editor.
 
Short story writer O. Henry worked briefly for the Post in 1895 and 1896. He had to leave his position at the Post when he was indicted for embezzlement from previous employment at a bank in Austin.
 
For many years, the Post was owned by the Hobby family, who also began Houston’s first radio station, KPRC (AM) in 1925. Amid declining sales, the Post was sold in 1983.
 
The Houston Post later closed down permanently, with the final edition printed on April 18, 1995, the day before the Oklahoma City federal building bombing. Its assets and liabilities were acquired by Hearst Corporation, the publisher of the Post’s rival daily Houston Chronicle, who then preceded to fire nearly all of the Post’s employees .
 
Google Groups: rec.autos.sport
Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (S. Spenser Aden)
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1993 14:43:14 GMT
Local: Fri, Mar 26 1993 10:43 am
Subject: Re: FYI - F1, Indycar and WC Driver Standings Update #2
   
I don’t envy the coverage this newspaper must give to IndyCar series.  I suppose I’ll stick with my poor Houston Comical or Pest 😊 
     
Google Groups: houston.general
Newsgroups: houston.general
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Peter da Silva)
Date: 1996/01/17
Subject: Re: Hou Chronicle covering up
   
I don’t get the Comical and I didn’t get the Pest when it existed, but I’m surprised… the Comical has always seemed to be rather on the right of center, leaving the left to the Pest…
   
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From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Patrick L. Humphrey)
Date: 1999/11/26
Subject: Re: Newspaper nicknames (was Re: Princeton’s attitude problem)
 
Meanwhile, when I was in college at that other school in town, there wasn’t a whole lot of consensus on what to call the campus paper, but pretty unanimous sentiment on Houston’s two major daily papers:  the Pest (Post, which folded in 1995) and the still-extant Comical (Chronicle, which is better served with the nickname, ever since it was assimilated into the Hearst empire).