San Antonio Excuse-for-News (San Antonio Express-News nickname)
The San Antonio Express-News began in 1865 as the San Antonio Express. The Express was a morning newspaper; the San Antonio News began in 1918 as an evening newspaper to challenge the San Antonio Light (1881-1993). In the 1980s, the San Antonio Express-News was created and the evening newspaper was discontinued.
Nicknames include San Antonio Excuse-for-News, San Antonio Excuse-News, San Antonio Excuse-Nuisance, and San Antonio Excess-Ooze. Its competitor was called the San Antonio Blight.
Wikipedia: San Antonio Express-News
The San Antonio Express-News is the daily newspaper of San Antonio, Texas. It is ranked as the third-largest daily newspaper in the state of Texas in terms of circulation, and is one of the leading news sources of South Texas, with offices in Austin, Brownsville, Laredo, and Mexico City. The Express-News is owned by the Hearst Corporation.
History
The paper was first published in 1865 as a weekly tabloid-style newspaper under the name San Antonio Express. At that time, the city had already had a number of other newspapers in a number of different languages. However, all the other publications went out of business, leaving only the Express to serve the city.
In December of 1866, the Express made the move from a weekly paper to a daily newspaper, and expanded into a full newspaper by the early 1870s. The early days of the Express was marked by several leadership changes which almost doomed the paper, until a brand new company, the Express Printing Company, took control in 1875. The Express eventually became a daily morning newspaper in 1878.
In January 1881 a new rival newspaper, the Evening Light, was first published. The Evening Light was published as an afternoon paper, as opposed to the Morning Express. At first, the editors of the Express chose to ignore the upstart paper, but the Light soon grew in popularity at the turn of the 20th Century. So much so that in 1918, the Express ownership, now renamed Express Publishing Company, launched its own afternoon paper, the San Antonio Evening News. Soon thereafter, a rivalry developed between workers of the Express and the News. In fact, some News workers dubbed a new office building as the News-Express building.
The 1920s was marked by expansion by Express Publishing as the company started one of the city’s first radio stations, WOAI, in 1922. Meanwhile, the company’s future owners, in the form of William Randolph Hearst, purchased the Light. As the two rival companies entered the 50s, the Express and the News both had higher readership numbers than the Light. However, the Light skyrocketed to the top of the market when it acquired a number of popular comic strips, like Dick Tracy. Over at Express Publishing, the company diversified further as they acquired a couple more radio stations, and a television station which they renamed KENS-TV. In the 1960s, Express Publishing was sold to the Harte-Hanks newspaper group.
In 1973, with the Light beating the Express and the News in circulation numbers, a new ownership group emerged. Australian native Rupert Murdoch of News Corp bought the Express and the News from Harte-Hanks. Murdoch re-formatted the News as a more tabloid-styled paper, while the Express retained its original, conservative format. The Light was now forced to compete against two different styles of newspaper while at the same time trying to combat the growing costs of an afternoon circulation.
By the mid 1980s, the Express and the News merged into the Express-News and afternoon service was slowly discontinued, while the Light started getting into the morning circulation business in order to keep up. But under News Corp., the Express-News adopted a more mainstream format and expanded its services to communities outside Bexar County. As a result, the Express-News became San Antonio’s leading newspaper for good. By 1992, News Corp had diversified into movies and television and was looking to sell the Express-News. The Hearst Corporation, which still owned the Light, agreed to either sell or close the newspaper and acquire the Express-News in order to keep its stake in the San Antonio market. The Light never found a buyer and it went out of business in January 1993.
San Antonio, TX, 78209 - Citysearch
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The Twig retails the “San Antonio Excuse-Fur-News,” which claims to be a mammal’s-eye view of current events and featuring columnists Rotty Stinson and Jeanne Jackal.
28 January 1993, San Antonio (TX) Express-News, “Variety of weapons used in papers’ war—pranks, name-calling,” pg. 7A:
...staffers referred to the opposition as the “Blight,” or the “Excuse and Snooze.”
26 February 1995, The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), “Snoozepapers: When people make fun of our names”:
...and in Texas, the San Antonio Excuse-For-News (Express-News).
Poynter Online: Newspaper Nicknames
Houston / San Antonio
Posted by dwight silverman 10/28/2003 2:38:54 PM
When I worked for the San Antonio Light in the mid-80s, we were called The Blight by those who disliked us, and that included our competition, the Express-News. Of course, we called that paper the Excess-Ooze, and given that it was a Murdoch property, it fit.
Poynter Online: Newspaper Nicknames
BONG’s compendium
Posted by Charles Stough 10/29/2003 12:14:04 AM
At the time I worked for the Dayton Barely News and now labor for the San Antonio Excuse-for-News.
Democratic Underground
WolverineDG
Mon Oct-25-04 09:21 PM
my latest shameful attempt to get ink
here’s my latest missive to the san antonio excuse for news…
Guardian - newsblog
Dave Dopp
Comment No. 23853
October 31, 2004 17:08
As an example of the “high regard” we have for newspapers, our San Antonio newspaper, the Express-News, is more commonly known as the San Antonio “Excuse-For-News”.
TalkLeft
Re: Tom Delay’s Venue Hearing Set for Nov. 22 (none / 0) (#9)
by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:49 PM EST
According to our local fish-wrap (the San Antonio Excuse-for-News…er, Express-News), the political contributions Priest has made of late were related to protecting judicial pensions, and I guess we can’t blame him for that.
Democratic Underground
GOPisEvil
Tue Jan-24-06 04:33 PM
18. I grew up with the San Antonio Blight and San Antonio Excess.
The Blight is long gone now, though.
What Is Your Local Paper? - Non-Aviation Forum
Senorcarnival From , joined today!, posts, RR:
Reply 3, posted Sat Apr 1 2006 10:14:47
The San Antonio Excuse-, I mean, Express-News.
Chicago White Sox Forums
goodgame
June 9, 2007
The San Antonio Excuse and Nuisance (some call it the Express-News) ranks Vinnie as number 22 of the all time 30 best Spurs players.
Woodworking Forums
turning BS to $$
by MGIB on Tue Dec 11, 2007 3:27 pm
Check out this story in the San Antonio Excuse for News…
Gunboard’s Forum
Hauptmann
04-22-2008, 02:49 PM
This is the San Antonio Excuse-Nuisance at it’s finest.
IDigMyGarden Forums
HOD
May 2nd, 2008, 11:41 AM
Re: A Gallon of Gas and the Ethanol Hoax
And one of the political cartoons in the San Antonio bLight ( or was it the Excuse-Nuisance).
Pecozbill
Saturday, May 24, 2008
(...)
Secondly, because my home town rag, the uber-liberal San Antonio Excuse-News chose to bury it on page 21… and others might do so as well!