Newspaper publishing in Hopkins County began by 1854 with the Texas Star in Tarrant, then the county seat. In 1855, William Wortham bought the printing presses, moved them to Bright Star, later Sulphur Springs, and founded the Independent Frontier. In 1864, Wortham renamed it the Sulphur Springs Gazette and kept ownership until 1898. Ezra Tate founded the Echo in 1878 as a competitor to the Gazette. During the Tate family's 39-year ownership, the Echo acquired the Evening News and the Morning Telegram, and the family merged those papers into the Daily News-Telegram while continuing the weekly Echo. In 1917, the Bagwell Company gained ownership of the Echo. The News-Telegram, Daily Gazette, and Weekly Gazette were later purchased and combined into one daily publication called the Daily News-Telegram, while the Echo continued as a weekly. Echo Publishing Co., a central printing company, bought the publications in 1951.