The Howard County Times is a daily newspaper serving Howard County, Maryland. Founded as a weekly newspaper in 1840, it was acquired by the then-independent local publisher Patuxent Publishing Company in 1978, along with other local papers. The Howard County Times is currently a unit of the Baltimore Sun Media Group and maintains its online news page on The Baltimore Sun website. The Howard County Times website and social media pages provide news items from the Times as well as several other local area newspapers and magazines, including the Columbia Flier, the Laurel Leader, and Howard magazine.
History
The Howard County Times was founded on 17 March 1840, in Ellicott City, the major town along the upper branches of the Patapsco River of Howard County, Maryland, just west of Baltimore, the major city and port of Maryland, when Edward Waite and Matthew Fields purchased the Howard Free Press. The name changed again to the Howard District Press. The name changed again to The Howard Gazette just prior to the American Civil War. In 1869, the Howard County Times was created with the merger of the Howard County Record, founded by John R. Brown. In 1882, Edwin Warfield,, later Governor of Maryland at the turn of the 19th Century in Baltimore purchased the paper while running for office. In 1920, the paper was owned by Judge James A. Clark, Sr., Paul Talbot and Paul G. Stromberg,, took over as editor. Paul "Pete" Stromberg became a state senator and editor of The Sun, a major daily newspaper in Baltimore. Which coincidentally, decades later would see The Sunpapers, along with its later syndicate chain owner, the Tribune Company, would in turn absorb the Howard County Times in a later merger with its last independent publisher, the Patuxent Publishing Company of Columbia, Maryland. In 1940, Stromberg took control of the Maryland Printing and Publishing Company which gave him sole ownership of the Howard County paper. Stromberg in turn created or purchased over the next few post-war years, 11 new local papers in the suburban or outlying Baltimore City communities/neighborhoods ringing around Baltimore, naming his syndicate as the "Stromberg Newspapers" and employed his nephew Charles L Gerwig as editor. Some of these were the Arbutus Times, Catonsville Times, Owings Mills Times, Towson Times, The Jeffersonian, Northeast Record, Northeast Booster, Baltimore Messenger and the Laurel Leader. Stromberg's editorial influence helped his brother-in-law Norman E. Moxley become a member of the Howard County Board of County Commissioners in 1949, Edgar Russell Moxley to become County Police Chief, his daughter Doris Thompson to become chairman of the planning commission and Robert Moxley, a prominent land developer purchasing land for the Rouse Company of famous nationally known mall developer James Rouse,. In 1965, The Columbia Times was created as a spin-off newspaper. Stromberg's daughter Doris Stromberg Thompson took over as editor from 1966 to 1978.
Acquisition by Patuxent Publishing
The Columbia Flier was established in 1969, just two years after Rouse began development of Columbia was formed a coupon flier for the new development of Columbia. As the new town grew, owner Zeke Orlinsky's paper served a larger market than the Times, eventually purchasing the newer paper. Editor Tom Graham would use the paper to encourage the growth of Columbia promoting political candidates that supported the project. In 1978, Rouse Company Architect Robert Moon designed a new headquarters for the Patuxent Publishing Company in a modernistic building at 10750 Little Patuxent Parkway leading into central Columbia. Moon's wife, worked at the firm as well, becoming editor of the Columbia Flier and then general manager of Patuxent Publishing. The Baltimore Sunmedia group purchased Patuxent Publishing Company, including the Howard County Times and Columbia Flier, integrating the local papers. The Columbia Flier building was put up for sale, but no tenants were signed on for over three years. In 2014, Former Baltimore Sun editor, and now Public relations director for Howard County David Nitkin announced that the County Executive Ken Ulman directed the purchase of the Flier building by the County for $2.8 million. County Councilperson, Mary Kay Sigaty announced the building where her husband Tom Graham used to work as an editor would be rebuilt as a replacement headquarters for the county's Economic Development Authority and the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship. The Howard County Times has since been integrated as a unit of the newly organized local publisher Baltimore Sun Media Group under the former Times Mirror Group of the Los Angeles Times, and later under the purchase of the Tribune Company syndicate of the Chicago Tribune.
