Scripps Howard is what our parent company was called when I came on board in April 1986. The E.W. Scripps Company is what our parent company is called now.

What a difference 22 years can make.

Then, it was an established and respected newspaper company.

Now, it’s a re-established and respected news media company.

Then, it was 108 years old.

Now it is 130 years old … or is it nine days old?

We were reborn last week. Maybe you saw the news item on our Business page. On July 1, Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. became a separate publicly traded company, splitting from the E.W. Scripps Company.

It was a milestone day for a company founded in 1878 when Edward W. Scripps borrowed $10,000 from his brothers to start a newspaper in Cleveland.

Several milestone days have come and gone in the past 22 years, though not all registered with me at the time.

In 1988, the Scripps family sold stock in the public market. Going public must have seemed like a good idea at the time. I was practically oblivious, but in hindsight, this was a watershed moment. Wall Street’s impact on journalism has been profound. That’s putting it mildly and politely.

In 1994, Scripps launched Home & Garden Television. Again, I was oblivious to this development. But as HGTV became a huge success, I was proud that my newspaper company was diversifying. But this was nothing new. My newspaper company launched radio stations in the 1930s and local television stations in the 1940s.

In 1997, Scripps acquired five newspapers, including the Independent-Mail.

In 2000, the Independent-Mail acquired me.

In 2005, Scripps acquired Shopzilla, an online comparison shopping service. I was not oblivious to this $500 million development. A multimedia company appeared to be stretching, but it sounded good for overall business.

In 2006, I attended a corporate meeting in Cincinnati. Executives from all newspapers, TV stations, cable networks and shopping services came together. The newspaper presence seemed small. Then it hit me. I no longer worked for a newspaper company that dabbled in some other things on the side. I was working for a category television company that also published some newspapers.

So in 2007, when plans to split Scripps into two companies were announced, I was pleased that I’d be working for a newspaper company again (one that still publishes 17 newspapers, operates 10 television stations, emphasizes serving its local communities and, most of all, pushes for Web growth). But I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the division. Rather, what would Wall Street make of it?

Now the big day is behind us. Sure enough, stock in one company soared, and stock in the other company sank. With the market struggling at large and the newspaper industry adjusting to tough business conditions, the timing was terrible, but things have since leveled off.

I majored in journalism, not business, so I’ll leave it to high-finance experts to analyze Scripps’ decision to split into two companies and speculate on the future of news media and new media.

I’ll mind my own business: this Web site ... and its newspaper.