The FOREST CITY PUBLISHING CO. was a holding company formed on 29 Sept. 1932 to facilitate the PLAIN DEALER's purchase of the CLEVELAND NEWS. The new company acquired the stock of the Plain Dealer Publishing Co., and of the Cleveland Co., publishers of the Plain Dealer and the Cleveland News, respectively. Benjamin P. Bole, president of Plain Dealer Publishing, became president of the new company, and Plain Dealer personnel dominated its Board of Directors. Forest City Publishing also acquired Cleveland's pioneer radio station, WHK, in 1934 and later bought controlling interest in Akron, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Youngstown stations. Forest City incorporated the Art Gravure Corp. of Ohio in 1937 and moved it to a new building at 1845 Superior Ave., where it did printing for the Plain Dealer and for other newspapers and magazines.
In the 1950s Forest City Publishing began dismantling its regional media acquisitions. Between 1953-54, it sold its radio stations outside of Cleveland and sold WHK to Metromedia, Inc., in Jan. 1958. In Jan. 1960 it sold the News to the CLEVELAND PRESS, which promptly ceased publication of its new acquisition. Forest City Publishing continued as publisher of the Plain Dealer until it sold that paper to Samuel Newhouse in Mar. 1967.
Shaw, Archer H. The Plain Dealer: One Hundred Years in Cleveland (1942).