Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

1996. Company sells first publicly traded stock

Providence Journal publisher Stephen Hamblett was on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on June 25, 1996. As chairman and chief executive officer of The Providence Journal Company, he was not there so much to buy or sell as to offer.

The company, started as a partnership publishing a twice-weekly newspaper in 1820, then a daily in 1829, was about to go public, offering its stock for sale on the exchange for the first time.

At 9:57 a.m., the first 1,087,000 shares of Journal stock -- ticker symbol PRJ -- traded simultaneously at $16 a share -- $1 above the offering price set by The Journal. The Journal as a private company ceased to exist.

The Journal Company, which owned 11 television stations and other holdings, besides the newspaper, raised $104.9 million selling its stock that day.

"We see a consolidation in the broadcast industry," said Thomas Matlack, company vice president. "A few well-capitalized players will survive, and at the end of the day, we intend to be one of those standing."

Matlack's fortunetelling proved to be wrong. And quickly.

On Sept. 26, 1996, Hamblett announced The Providence Journal Company was being sold to A.H. Belo Corp., of Texas.

Some Rhode Islanders were taken aback.

"I'll confess that I'm disappointed," said U.S. Sen. John H. Chafee, whose family was long connected to ownership of The Journal. "What I remember about The Journal is that it held public officials to high standards. I have no reason to believe that those traditions won't continue. But it comes as a jolt."

Many in the news business saw the sale as the merger of two like-minded companies with similar histories and proven records of journalistic excellence -- The Journal had won four Pulitzer Prizes, and Belo's Dallas Morning News had won six. And The Journal would retain a remarkable amount of independence. It would be a subsidiary, with its own board of directors.

"The independence of the Providence Journal-Bulletin will be maintained," said Hamblett.

On Feb. 19, 1997, shareholders of both companies, in separate meetings, approved the sale. On Feb. 28, after the Federal Communications Commission approved the deal, Belo completed its acquisition of The Journal.