"[2] The Hutchinson News began July 4, 1872, when Houston Whiteside, a young Tennessee lawyer, published the first paper.

He published two papers, The Herald in the morning and The News at night, with separate staffs working in the same plant.

A year later she sold the papers to Hutchinson Publishing Co., principal members of which were John P. and Sidney Harris.

The Harrises acquired more newspapers, mostly in Kansas, and the company became known as Harris Enterprises, which ultimately included the Garden City Telegram, Hays Daily News, Ottawa Herald, The Salina Journal, and The Hawk Eye of Burlington, Iowa, as well as MarketAide, an advertising and marketing firm in Salina, and Harris Business Services, a shared services company.

In 1965, The News won journalism’s most coveted award, the Pulitzer Prize for meritorious service, for its four-year editorial and court battle for reapportionment in Kansas.