S.H. Sayer began publishing the Hubbard City News in 1881, the year Hubbard was founded. The business later merged with S.R. Boyd's Texas Pick and Pan and with the Hubbard City Progress, a newspaper started in 1901 by brothers George and Jim Mecklin, former City News workers. Under their leadership and later the ownership of Andy and Ralph Mecklin, the paper became a prominent publication in central Texas. In 1969, News Publishing Co. of Mexia purchased it. A City News office at this site was destroyed by a tornado in 1973.