Austin American - Statesman The Austin American - Statesman is the major daily newspaper for Austin , the capital city of Texas . It is owned by Cox Enterprises . The newspaper places focus on issues affecting Austin and the Central Texas region . The " Austin American - Statesman " competes with the " Austin Chronicle " , an alternative weekly . The paper tends to print " Associated Press " , " New York Times " , " The Washington Post " and " Los Angeles Times " international and national news , but has strong Central Texas coverage , especially in political reporting . The " Statesman " benefits from the culture and writing heritage of Austin . It extensively covers the music scene , especially the annual South by Southwest Music Festival . The newspaper co - sponsors various events around Austin such as the Capital 10K foot race and the Season for Caring charity campaign . The " Statesman ' s " news website is " Statesman . com " and its entertainment site is " Austin360 . com " . It also publishes a weekly Spanish - language newspaper , ¡ ahora sí ! ( " ahorasi . com " ) . Additionally , the " Statesman " partners with the " St . Petersburg Times " with " PolitiFact Texas " , a site that covers issues that are relevant to Texas and the Austin area . Circulation . In 2009 , the " Austin American - Statesman " ranked 60th in circulation among daily newspapers , according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations . Figures from Scarborough Research show the " Statesman " — in print and online — reaches 68 % of Central Texans in an average week . Following a national trend among daily newspapers , the " Statesman " has seen circulation declines in recent years . Austin is one of America ' s most Internet - connected cities , though not ranked in the 25 largest " connected " cities , and , in a related trend , the " Statesman ' s " daily circulation ranks among those cities seeing drops of 5 % or more in recent reports . As compared to a U . S . national decline of 2 . 1 % , the " Statesman ' s " daily circulation in the most recent six - month reporting period fell 5 . 6 % to 173 , 527 . Its Sunday circulation fell 5 . 5 % to 215 , 984 . Austin is the 15th largest city ( and the 36th largest metropolitan area ) in the U . S . Politics . " The Statesman " endorsed George W . Bush in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections , and Republican governor Rick Perry along with every other Republican incumbent in 2006 . In the 2008 presidential election , however , the paper endorsed Barack Obama . The " Statesman " also provides coverage of the Libertarian Party and Green Party matters . History . Founded as the triweekly " Democratic Statesman " in 1871 , the newspaper was originally allied with the state Democratic party during Reconstruction . It began daily publication as a morning paper in 1873 . After absorbing the " Austin Tribune " in 1914 , it published as the afternoon " Austin Statesman and Tribune " , then became an evening paper and changed its name to the " Austin Evening Statesman " in 1916 . A rival paper , the morning " Austin American " , began in 1914 . Waco - based newspapermen Charles E . Marsh and E . S . Fentress bought the " American " in 1919 and the " Evening Statesman " in 1924 . Merged under one company , the morning and evening papers published separately during the week and combined for a Sunday " Austin American Statesman " edition . The company continued separate titles until 1973 , when all products became the " American - Statesman " , with four editions daily . Cox Enterprises acquired the " Statesman " when it bought the Waco newspaper company in 1976 . In 1987 , the " Statesman " moved to morning - only publication . In 2008 , Cox put the " Statesman " up for sale with most of its other newspaper holdings in order to pay down debt . A year later , the company pulled the paper off the market , citing a lack of suitable offers . The newspaper is part of subsidiary Cox Media Group , which joined the corporation ' s television , radio and newspaper assets under one umbrella in 2008 .