The Dallas Morning News is a daily newspaper in Dallas, Texas. It is the flagship publication of the A.H. Belo Corp.
The Morning News became Dallas’ only daily newspaper with the closing of the Dallas Times-Herald in 1991. It shares some content with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a smaller McClatchy-owned newspaper also in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. It has announced plans to begin printing the Star-Telegram in early 2014.
In early 2011, it became one of the first large metro newspapers in what was expected to be a larger wave to go behind a paywall, a move that Morning News publisher Jim Moroney acknowledged carried “big risk.” Sunday delivery and digital access started at $3.69 per week, which included access through dedicated iPhone and iPad applications.
In 2013, it scrapped its paywall, replacing it with a two-site model in which all online content is available for free, with a second site offering a “premium” design for $11.96 per month, or included with print subscriptions. The strategy included plans for event-related perks for subscribers. It abandoned that premium model in July 2014. In 2014, the Morning News announced a partnership with The Washington Post that gave Morning News subscribers free access to the Post’s website and apps.
The Morning News had a daily print circulation of about 200,000 as of 2012, and about 400,000 with digital subscriptions and branded editions included.
One significant contributor to that larger total circulation figure is Briefing, a free “quick-read” newspaper delivered to households in neighborhoods attractive to advertisers who do not subscribe to the Morning News. Briefing distributed over 200,000 copies a day, Wednesday through Saturday, as of early 2011.
In 2012, the Morning News bought Pegasus News, an online hyperlocal news company covering the Dallas area. The paper also co-owns with a local ad agency the social advertising company Speakeasy, through which it began running native advertising in 2013.