Technology | Business in American History

Katie Shore

If at First, You Don’t Succeed: The three Davis brothers – James, Earl, and J. Clair – refused to let the tornado in 1953 shut them down. They stand outside of their new facility at Jefferson Street in 1954, which was paid for using a disaster loan. Image from Waco Tribune-Herald, Feb. 12, 1978.

When people think of Waco, they usually don’t think of printing or publishing firms, but here is where Davis Brothers Publishing Company found success and made a name for itself. By the time it was acquired by a larger media company in 2016, Davis Brothers Publishing Company had been a part of the community for almost ninety years. What started out as a family-run business became a large-scale printing and publishing operation in Waco and the surrounding areas, and its journey as a business is rather fascinating.

In 1927, brothers Earl and J. Clair Davis bought a printing press and formed what would eventually become Davis Brothers Publishing Company. The two brothers operated their infantile business out of a small building on their mother’s property until they were able to move to a different location in 1928.

The Davis brothers slowly started to gain respectability in the printing industry in Waco. The company became especially known for producing and publishing the Waco Record newspaper with their partner Mr. B. G. McKie starting in 1932. Soon after, with James, the third Davis brother, joining the company and the move to a new location in the heart of downtown Waco, the business was making strides towards success. Unfortunately, all of that came to a halt on May 11, 1953.

On that day, a terrible tornado hit Waco. As a result, the Davis brothers lost their manufacturing facility and nearly all of their machinery. Sadly, the tornado also put the Waco Record out of publication, but all hope was not lost for the printing company. The brothers applied for and received a disaster loan a few months later, which allowed them to purchase another printing company, Israel Printing Company, and use it as a stepping stone to break back into the commercial printing industry. The company acquired a new location and added Earl Davis’s son Bob to the staff in 1959 to manage sales.

Davis Brothers Publishing Company especially contributed to the publishing realm in Texas through the creation of the Texian Press, which was established in 1961 by Bob Davis and Frank Jasek of Library Binding Co. In its prime in the 1980s, the Texian Press was the largest independent publisher in Texas, cranking out an average of eight to ten books each year. As the name suggests, this operation focused on publishing books and literature related to Texas. Specifically, they served schools and even did some publishing for the Texas State Library.

Publishing Done the Texas Way: Bob Davis hands archivist Dorman H. Winfrey his newly published book A History of Rusk County. Davis Brothers Publishing Company released its first hardcover book and its first novel as part of their Texian Press publishing company in 1961. Image from Waco News-Tribune, May 16, 1961.

By 1980, the company had moved to a new location at 4500 Speight Avenue, where they built a large, state-of-the-art facility. At the time, the company was technologically advanced due to the addition of a few web printing presses and computerized equipment that was purchased in the seventies. This technology allowed Davis Brothers Publishing Company to serve many groups with many different printing needs. During the 1980s, some of the top printing jobs of the Davis Brothers Publishing Company included the Texas Register, issues of Texas Agriculture, state and local directories, and even the Baylor Lariat.

Tech Savvy: Pictured above is an employee at Davis Brothers Publishing Company using a web press machine to print the Baylor Lariat and the Texas Register in the 1980s. Davis Brothers Publishing Company was very advanced for the time in that they had several of these high-powered machines at their disposal. Image from Waco Tribune-Herald, Feb. 12, 1978.

Technology and Teamwork: Workers make use of another piece of technology at the Davis Brothers Publishing Company facility. This machine is used to trim, stitch, and collate any and all of the company’s bound items. Image from Waco Tribune-Herald, Feb. 12, 1978.

The company kept plugging along into the 1990s and 2000s. It continued its printing and publishing work while trying to compete with larger, better-equipped firms. In 2016, Davis Brothers Publishing Firm was acquired by Integ, a company based in Waco that focuses on delivering quality content with a heavy emphasis on customer service. In purchasing Davis Brothers Publishing Company, Integ desired to improve its ability to provide web press services and to provide for the printing needs of local customers.

While Davis Brothers Publishing Company now no longer exists as an independent business, the impacts of this company cannot be ignored. In its ninety-year history, Davis Brothers Publishing Company proved that small businesses are still mighty and that providing people with a quality product is the key to success.

A Dream Team: Pictured above are General Manager Bill Shirley (left), President Bob Davis (middle), and Vice President Earl Ray Davis (left). By 1986, Davis Brothers Publishing Company still employed members of the Davis family; Earl Ray Davis was the son of President Bob Davis. Family values were clearly important at Davis Brothers Publishing Company. Image from Waco Tribune-Herald, April 20, 1986.

Tabloid Gold: Eighty-nine-year-old Joe L. Ward, a Waco native and businessman, discusses how Davis Brothers Publishing Company’s publication the Waco Record had a reputation for publishing articles about scandals and eye-catching headlines rather than actual news.

I recently found myself re-watching the office for the seventh time in an attempt to escape having to write this very blog post. I got to the episode in which Michael is stressing over an article he read in a magazine about the rising dominance of China and the fear that the U.S. will no longer be number one. This has been a subject of interest for many around the world as the Chinese economy is poised to overtake the United States’ in the coming years. However, I feel that size of an economy means very little compared to the innovation an economy exhibits regarding technology and new developments.

One of the current “battles” of this competition is the race to see which country can more rapidly develop a 5G network. A Wall Street Journal article examines this race and the consequences it could have in the near future. Not only would the technology allow for a much faster transmission of data to local college students watching the Office instead of working, but this technology is also essential for the coming development of “smart cities” of the future with features such as self driving vehicles and implementation of technologies such as VR or AR. In addition to this, the prize for winning this race could be the potential billions of dollars in royalties to be enjoyed by the first entity that establishes the technology and frameworks for its use and a head start in the development of newer technologies such as 6G in the future. The authors make the advantages of 5G well known in the article:

While the economics of 5G are still being worked out, boosters say the potential payoffs are immense. Companies that own patents stand to make billions of dollars in royalties. Countries with the largest and most reliable networks will have a head start in developing the technologies enabled by faster speeds. The dominant equipment suppliers could give national intelligence agencies and militaries an advantage in spying on or disrupting rival countries’ networks.

“As we face the future, we know deep down that the birth of 5G standards represents a new beginning,” Huawei’s chairman, Eric Xu, told the audience at the company event.

Hans Vestberg, Verizon’s chief executive officer, speaks of the technology in equally dramatic terms. “We are strong believers that 5G [will have] a very transformative effect on many things in our society,” he said. “Consumer, media, entertainment…whole industries.”

For me the article seems to showcase prominently Big Idea category, Business, State, and Society. This is shown in the competition between a country such as the United States where government is largely removed from business decisions, and China where the state plays a large role in investing in businesses that serve the state’s interest. This dynamic between the two makes the competition interesting as it seems to also be a competition between the two forms of government the countries employ in see which can further promote innovation within their borders. The U.S. government has even given some ground in this regard as it seems the FCC might encourage the development of 5G networks by overriding local rules, and tax dollars are being spent to fund academic research on 5G.

This competition is additionally important because not only the rewards of the developing the technology first are on the line, but also the risks of losing the race. Operating with another countries information technology always leaves open the possibility of espionage and potential interference from the country with the upper-hand. If China were to successfully develop 5G technology before the U.S., this could force the U.S. to operate with Chinese technology that could be interfered with by the Chinese state for political reasons.

New technologies have always been a key part of business history and they shape the way we live our lives and the benefits are immense to those who first invent and incorporate them into their societies. Whether we use 5G to procrastinate more efficiently by watching Netflix or utilize it to make our society more interconnected and advanced, fortune has always favored those who innovate, and I think we will find it the same with 5G.