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The current Herald has a history that can be traced back through two lineages and two media moguls nearly a century separated. Its history involves the Daily Advertiser and the old Boston Herald and it was owned at one point by William Randolph Hearst and later by Rupert Murdoch.

The Daily Advertiser was established in 1813 in Boston by Nathan Hale. The paper grew to prominence through the 19th century taking over other Boston area papers. In 1904, William Randolph Hearst began publishing his own newspaper in Boston called The American. Hearst ultimately ended up purchasing the Daily Advertiser in 1917. By 1938, the Daily Advertiser had changed to the Daily Record, and The American had become the Sunday Advertiser. A third paper owned by Hearst called the Afternoon Record, which had renamed to Evening American, merged in 1961 with the Daily Record to form the Record American. The Sunday Advertiser and Record American would ultimately be merged in 1972 into a line of newspapers that stretched back to the old Boston Herald.

The old Boston Herald was founded in 1846 by a group of Boston printers jointly under the name of John A. French & Company. They paper was published as a single sheet, two-sided paper and it was sold it for one cent. Its first editor, William O. Eaton , just 22 years old, said "The Herald will be independent in politics and religion; liberal, industrious, enterprising, critically concerned with literacy and dramatic matters, and diligent in its mission to report and analyze the news, local and global."

Even earlier than the Herald, the Boston Traveler was founded in 1825 as a bulletin for stage coach listings. In 1912, the Herald acquired the Traveler, eventually becoming the Boston Herald Traveler, in 1967Events January January 4 British motorboat racer Donald Campbell dies while attempting a water speed record in Coniston Lake. January 4 Algerian revolutionary Mohammed Khider is shot in Madrid. January 6 Vietnam War: USMC and ARVN troops launch " Operatio.

In 1946Events January January 4 Theodore Schurch becomes the last person to be executed for offences committed under the Treachery Act of 1940 January 7 Allied recognize Austrian republic with 1937 borders the country is divided into four occupation zones Januar, the Herald Traveler organization acquired Boston radio station WHDH. Two years later, WHDH-FM was licensed, and on November 26November 26 is the 330th day (331st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 35 days remaining. Events 1778 In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to discover Maui. 1805 Official opening of Thomas Tel, 1957Events January January 2 San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge. January 3 Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch January 4 After 69 years the last issue of Colliers magazine is published January 5 Russell Endean becomes t, WHDH-TV made its début as an ABCPaul Rand in 1962. ABC network re-directs here; an alternate meaning is Australian Broadcasting Corporation The American Broadcasting Company or ABC is a television and radio network in the United States, owned by The Walt Disney Company. History In 1940 affiliate on channel 5. In 1961, WHDH-TV's affiliation switched to CBS. Soon after, channel 5 was embroiled in a Federal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency, created, directed, and empowered by Congressional statute. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934 as the successor to the Federal Radio Commi proceeding over whether it was appropriate for a newspaper to own a television station. (Many Boston broadcast historians accuse the Boston Globe of being covertly behind the proceeding. The Herald Traveler was Republican in sympathies, and the Globe was allied with the Kennedy family interests.) The FCC ordered a comparative hearing, and in 1969 a competing applicant, Boston Broadcasters, Inc. was granted a construction permit to replace WHDH-TV on channel 5. The Herald Traveler fought the decision in court -- by this time, revenues from channel 5 were all but keeping the newspaper afloat -- but its final appeal ran out in 1972 and WHDH-TV signed off for good on March 19.

Without a television station to cross-subsidize the newspaper, the Herald Traveler was no longer able to remain in business, and the newspaper was sold to Hearst's rival Record American. The two papers were merged to become the Boston Herald American. The paper became a tabloid newspaper in September 1981. On December 20, 1982, the paper was purchased by Rupert Murdoch, who changed its name back to the Boston Herald. The Herald continued to grow over the ensuing decades, expanding its coverage and increasing its circulation.

In February 1994, News Corporation was forced to sell the paper, in order that its subsidiary Fox Television Network could legally consummate its purchase of a Boston-area television station. Patrick Purcell , who was the publisher of the Boston Herald and a News Corporation executive, purchased the Herald and established it as an independent newspaper. Several years later, Purcell would give the Herald a suburban presence it had never had by purchasing the money-losing Community Newspaper Company from Fidelity Investments. Although the companies merged under the banner of Herald Media, Inc., the suburban papers maintained their distinct editorial and marketing identity.

In March 2004, the Herald hired Mike Barnicle, a local columnist fired by its rival the Boston Globe back in 1998 for journalistic fraud.