About Harris Enterprises
The group's origins trace to Ottawa, Kansas, and to the early years of the 20th century. In 1907, Ralph A. Harris purchased the Ottawa, Kansas, Herald, then combined it with the Ottawa Republic in 1915. Later, Harris' two sons, John and Sidney, expanded the group and set its standards. Starting with The Herald as the base, they acquired another Kansas daily, the Chanute Tribune, in 1927, with John as editor. When Ralph Harris died in 1930, Sidney became The Herald's editor and publisher, a position he held until his death in 1955.
In 1933, the Harrises bought the Hutchinson, Kansas, News, which became the flagship publication. As The News' editor and publisher, John Harris became a widely quoted columnist and influential editorial writer. He died in 1969.
In Iowa, The Hawk Eye at Burlington was brought into the fold in 1941. Full ownership of the Salina (Kansas) Journal was added in 1949 a minority had been acquired 11 years earlier.
Other Kansas dailies now in the group are the Garden City Telegram, purchased in 1953; and the Hays Daily News, 1970. In addition to these, a number of other dailies figure prominently in the group's history. The Harris group has owned the Olathe Daily News and the Parsons Sun in Kansas; the Camarillo Daily News and the Simi Valley Enterprise in California; and the Spencer Daily News in Iowa.
In 1994, Harris Enterprises purchased assets of a Salina marketing firm and formed a new company, MarketAide Services, Inc. Through MarketAide, the newspapers will be able to offer a wider range of services to advertisers .
In the early 1980s, the Harris Group joined other media organizations, including such giants as Knight-Ridder and Times Mirror, in experimenting with a videotex news service, which was available to personal computers via phone modem. Harris Electronic News was launched in Hutchinson in 1982, then moved to Kansas City the next year. The service offered a varied menu of on-line information, ranging from agricultural and weather data to sports and recipes.
As was the case with most of the early videotex experiments, the size of the subscriber base failed to meet expectations, and the effort was shut down in 1985.
In early 1996, Harris Enterprises launched its Internet research and development project through the Hays Daily News.
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