WACO (June 18, 2009) - For the first time in more than 30 years, the Waco Tribune-Herald could soon have a local owner.

Sources tell News 10 that Clifton Robinson, a longtime business owner and community benefactor, is among the bidders for the paper.

It is important to note that a lot could happen, and nothing is set in stone.

The chain announced in August 2008 that the Tribune-Herald, which has served Waco and McLennan County for more than a century and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1994, is for sale, along with all off its other papers except for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Palm Beach Post, Dayton Daily News and the paper's affiliated publications.

Cox has owned the Waco paper since 1976.

The paper's roots date back to 1897 when the Waco Daily Times-Herald was first published.

In 1899, that paper was combined with the Waco Daily Telephone to become the Waco Times-Herald and Telephone.

That paper later absorbed the Daily Chronicle. E.S. Fentress and Charles E. Marsh, who published the Waco News-Tribune, purchased the Times-Herald in 1927 and published it as the Tribune-Herald until Cox purchased the newspaper nearly a half century later.

In 1994, the paper and reporters Mark England and Darlene McCormick, were nominated finalists for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for a series of stories on allegations of abuse and other criminal acts by Branch Davidians led by what the paper called "The Sinful Messiah," David Koresh.