Contributor: Ohio University

Britt-Scripps House is San Diego. Built in 1887 by Eugene Britt. In 1898 when the residence was sold to E.W. Scripps, owner of local newspapers and known to be the first to practice cloth bookbinding.

SCRIPPS, EDWARD WILLIS (18 June 1854-12 Mar. 1926), founder of the CLEVELAND PRESS, was born near Rushville, Ill., son of James M. and Julia Osborne Scripps.

He helped his brother James start the Detroit News in 1873. Scripps came to Cleveland in 1878, starting the Penny Press on 2 Nov. with his cousin, John Scripps Sweeney, as business manager; 60% of the $10,000 capital was provided by his brothers James and George in Detroit. Scripps was editor for 16 months, when he left Cleveland to start the St. Louis Evening Chronicle. A year later he returned to Cleveland for 6 months before leaving for Europe. Scripps's brief Cleveland residence was marked by a major confrontation with HENRY CHISHOLM†. When a Press reporter mistakenly identified Chisholm's son as a participant in a street brawl, Chisholm instigated an attack on the reporter by his employees and started civil and criminal proceedings against Scripps and the Press. Scripps retaliated, preparing a special edition of the Press headed "Chisholm's Infamy" (referring to the attack on his reporter), running a condensed version of the same daily until he won the criminal libel suit and Chisholm dropped the libel suit and paid $5,000 damages to the reporter. Chisholm's subsequent death was attributed partly to the Press's attacks.

After 1881, Scripps only spent about 30 total days in Cleveland while founding and running the other papers that eventually merged into the Scripps-Howard organization.

Scripps married Nackie Holtsinger on 5 Oct. 1885. They had 6 children: James George, John Paul, Edward Willis, Jr., Robert Paine, Dolla Blair, and Nackey. Scripps retired from active business to San Diego in 1890. He died on his yacht "Ohio" in Monrovia Bay, Liberia.
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E.W. Scripps launched his first newspaper, The Penny Press, in Cleveland on Nov. 2, 1878.

He was only 24 years old, but after founding and working at The Detroit Press with his brothers and sister, he had formed his own idea about what a newspaper should be. The Penny Press, later to become The Cleveland Press, was a clearly written newspaper targeted toward blue-collar readers and designed to reach the greatest possible number of people. It was inexpensive and popular in appeal.

As his newspaper business grew, Scripps added more papers and founded United Press, an international news service to compete with the Associated Press; Newspaper Enterprise Association, a newspaper syndication service and forerunner of United Media; and numerous public buildings and projects that had been funded by Scripps’ charitable giving.

In 2012, the E.W. Scripps Company renewed it's focus on it's core business – journalism – as it moves into a new digital age.

Scripps is driven to develop and expand its digital strategies including social gaming, while embracing its rich history in delivering community-changing journalism and creating valuable marketing environments.

It serves communities through television stations, newspapers and Scripps Howard News Service, and enriches the lives and vocabularies of students through the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Creative, talented and energetic employees are leading the way at 19 television stations in major cities such as Denver, San Diego, Detroit, Phoenix, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Tampa.

They are serving communities with impactful story-telling, relevant investigations and interactive outreach through newspapers in 13 markets.

The Scripps digital group is growing and gaining momentum with new product offerings, enhancements, and technology that gives customers more options than ever before to find the information and entertainment they crave.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational program administered on a not-for-profit basis. It helps to develop correct English usage that participants retain for life.

E.W. Scripps lived to be 71, and had six children.

He strove to provide careers, not charity. He believed self-reliance created self-respect.

Men looking for soft and easy journalistic careers rarely sought service with E.W. Scripps. It was hard, tough work.

But for men of a particular breed, there was a quid pro quo - men who considered journalism an exciting adventure, or who had instincts for social reform, or who liked to deflate pomposity and pretense. Scripps papers stood in awe of no person or institution. Scripps men worked in an atmosphere of journalistic and creative freedom.