Industry | Newspaper publishing |
---|---|
Founded | 1967 |
Founder | N.J. Babb |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | |
Revenue | $ 55,043,466 [1] (2023) |
Number of employees | 510 [1] (2023) |
Website | cninewspapers |
Community Newspapers, Inc. is an American publisher of newspapers and advertising-related publications throughout the southeastern United States. The company was formed in 1967 by Newton Jerue Babb, and is based in Athens, Georgia. It owns and operates about 25 newspapers. [2] As of 2023, approximately ten employees work at the company's headquarters in Athens. Another 500 work at other locations. [1]
Babb founded the company in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and helped it grow to control nearly 50 newspapers. [3] On January 1, 1985, Babb and his wife (who served as president of CNI) were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in a Holiday Inn hotel room in Tuxedo, North Carolina. [4] [5] In March 1989 William J. Bresnan, Jeff DeMond, Thomas H. Wood and W.H. 'Dink' NeSmith purchased the company. [2] [6]
In 1999, CNI sold the Lake City News & Post and The Weekly Observer of Hemingway to Thompson Newspapers Inc. [7] In 2006, Bresnan and DeMond were bought out and today the company is owned by Wood and NeSmith. [2] [3] NeSmith is a past chairman of the Georgia Telecommunications Commission and former president of the Georgia Press Association. [3] [8] In 2021, chief financial officer Mark Major replaced NeSmith as president and NeSmith took Wood's place as chairman of the board. [3]
In April 1977, CNI sold the Tribune-Times in Mauldin to Tri-City Media. [9] In March 1999, CNI agreed to acquired The Hartwell Sun, The News-Leader of Royston, and The Elberton Star (all of which were owned by Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.) in exchange for The Herald Independent of Winnsboro, The Dispatch-News of Lexington, S.C., and the Marion Star & Mullins Enterprise of Marion. [10] Later that month, CNI bought The Elbert County Examiner and combined it with the Star. [11] In September 2000 the company purchased the Lake City Reporter, Nassau County Record, the Palatka Daily News , and the Fernandina Beach News-Leader. [2] Those papers were formerly owned by The New York Times Company. [12]
By August 2001, CNI had moved its headquarters into a former Coca-Cola bottling plant built in 1928 in Athens, Georgia. [13] As of 2003, the company owned 36 weekly and three daily newspapers, as the company was pursuing the emphasis on weeklies as a differentiation strategy. [14] By 2004, CNI owned 174 weekly newspapers, more than any other company in the U.S. [15] A centralized approach to printing operations ("clustering"), where the multiple newspapers are printed in the same shop, saved costs. [16]
In 2006 CNI sold the Richmond County Daily Journal (Rockingham, N.C.), the Sylvania Telephone (Sylvania, Ga.), and The Citizen News (Edgefield, S.C.). In 2014, CNI sold the Dawson News & Advertiser (Dawsonville, Ga.). [2] In 2019, it closed the Andrews Journal and merged it with the Cherokee Scout . [17] In 2024, CNI sold the Palatka Daily News. [18]