Suburban Journals

Last updated
SuburbanJournalsLogo.jpg
TypeChain of community newspapers
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Lee Enterprises
FoundedVarious
Headquarters14522 South Outer 40 Road
Town and Country, Missouri 63017
Sister newspapers St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Website suburbanjournals.stltoday.com

Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis was a group of publications in the St. Louis region owned by Lee Enterprises. The chain served St. Louis and St. Charles counties in Missouri and Madison, Monroe and St. Clair counties in Illinois.

Contents

It published community newspapers, the Ladue News,Savvy Family,St. Louis' Best Bridal and Feast. [1]

Publications were grouped in regional offices in Town and Country, Missouri and Collinsville, Illinois.

The chain for years was distributed to homes for free. The papers became subscription-only in November 2008, a move decried by long-time employees as "the beginning of the end.". [2]

The chain's main competition was the Webster-Kirkwood Times, The South County Times and Call Newspapers in Missouri and The Alton Telegraph, Edwardsville Intelligencer , and Belleville News-Democrat in Illinois.

Relationship with St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The newspapers are independent of the Lee-owned St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but share some resources, such a technical assistance and printing. [3]

The companies, which were previously owned by Pulitzer Inc., also share a common website, stltoday.com.

The papers were printed at Donnelly Printing Company on Latty Avenue in north St. Louis County for years, then later at the Pulitzer Publishing Center in Maryland Heights, Missouri.

Notable staff

History

Most of the publications currently owned by Suburban Journals date to the early 1900s as independent newspapers. Many were in direct competition with one another.

By the 1930s, the big adversaries in south St. Louis were the South Side Journal —renamed from the Cherokee News after Frank X. Bick bought it in 1933 — and 39th Street Neighborhood News, launched in the summer of 1922 by ex-Post Dispatch composing room worker Bernard H. Nordmann. [8] Bick's son, Frank C. Bick, helped shape the fledgling chain, which grew to include 10 publications in St. Louis City, as well as St. Louis, Jefferson and Franklin counties. Meanwhile, in northern St. Louis, Arthur Morgan Donnelly bought the Wellston Local in 1935 and rebranded it as the Wellston Journal, focusing more on north and central areas of the city. Donnelly, with his sons James and Robert, later shifted attention to northern and western St. Louis County, St. Charles County and eventually spread eastwards across the Mississippi River to include the Illinois counties of Madison, St. Clair, and Monroe; ultimately publishing 25 separate newspapers in the bi-state metropolitan St. Louis area.

The Donnelly and Bick families competed against one another until 1970, when operations were eventually and cooperatively formalized as sister companies, creating the Suburban Newspapers of Greater St. Louis; more commonly known as Suburban Journals. Circulation topped 820,000 households, making it one of the largest free-distribution community newspaper groups in the United States. In May 1984, the group was snapped up by Ingersoll Publications Co., a firm headed by Ralph Ingersoll II, whose father lead the innovative PM newspaper in 1940s New York City. [9]

Ingersoll, who wanted to compete with the Post-Dispatch and now defunct St. Louis Globe-Democrat , used high-risk junk bonds and the advice of his friend Michael Milken to finance his acquisitions and eventually launched the failed St. Louis Sun . [10] Ingersoll was bought out by his partner and financier, E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co., which formed the Journal Register Co., the owner of 25 daily newspapers, including the New Haven Register and Alton Telegraph. The chain became the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis.

In 1997, it bought the Ladue News. [11] The company in 1999 had revenues of $151 million. [12] Pulitzer, which owned the Post-Dispatch and 11 other daily newspapers, in June 2000 bought the company, which then had 38 papers. [13] It cost $165 million. [12]

Founder's grandson Robert Donnelly, Jr. rejoined the firm as an employee of Pulitzer, Inc. 16 years after the family's sale to Ingersoll Publications Co., making him a third-generation Publisher at Suburban Journals. Pulitzer later sold the group to Lee in summer 2005 for $1.46 billion. [14] In early 2007, Lee reorganized the chain's management and eliminated publisher positions in the nine offices. [15]

When the chain was acquired as part of Pulitzer's purchase out by Lee in 2005, the Suburban Journals published 35 papers. [16] The bad economy, the effect of the Internet on the newspaper business and the weight of the debt Lee took on in the purchase of Pulitzer combined to force major layoffs and consolidation in the chain. In 2009, the chain was cut to 10 editions. [17] Additional cuts in 2011 brought the number of editions to six. [18] Two more editions were cut in 2013. [19] In August 2014 the Collinsville Herald and the Granite City Press-Record were combined to create the Madison County Journal. [20]

Feast was launched in August 2010. [21]

Editions

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madison County, Illinois</span> County in Illinois, United States

Madison County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a part of the Metro East in southern Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 264,776, making it the eighth-most populous county in Illinois and the most populous in the southern portion of the state. The county seat is Edwardsville, and the largest city is Granite City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collinsville, Illinois</span> City in Illinois, United States

Collinsville is a city located mainly in Madison County and partially in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 24,366. Collinsville is approximately 14 miles (23 km) east of St. Louis, Missouri, and is part of that city's Metro East area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rock Hill, Missouri</span> City in Missouri, United States

Rock Hill is a suburban town in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 4,635 at the 2010 census. It is home to the Fairfax House on the National Register of Historic Places.

<i>The Kansas City Star</i> American daily newspaper serving Kansas City, Missouri

The Kansas City Star is a newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes.

<i>St. Louis Post-Dispatch</i> Daily newspaper in Missouri, United States

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the Belleville News-Democrat, Alton Telegraph, and Edwardsville Intelligencer. The publication has received 19 Pulitzer Prizes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater St. Louis</span> Metropolitan area in the United States

Greater St. Louis is a bi-state metropolitan statistical area in the United States with its core in both Missouri and Illinois. Its largest principal city is the independent city of St. Louis, and its largest employer is St Louis County, Missouri which lies immediately to the west. The pre-war city core is on the Mississippi Riverfront on the border with Illinois in the geographic center of the metro area. The Mississippi River bisects the metro area geographically between Illinois and Missouri; however, the Missouri portion is much more populous. St. Louis is the focus of the largest metro area in Missouri and the Illinois portion known as Metro East is the second largest metropolitan area in that state. St. Louis County is independent of the City of St. Louis and their two populations are generally tabulated separately.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metro East</span> Region of Illinois in the United States

Metro East is a region in southern Illinois that contains eastern and northern suburbs and exurbs of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It encompasses five Southern Illinois counties in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area. The region's most populated city is Belleville, with 45,000 residents. The Metro East is the second largest urban area in Illinois after the Chicago metropolitan area and, as of the 2000 census, the population of the Metro East statistical area was 599,845 residents, a figure that had risen to above 700,000 in 2010. The significant growth in the Metro East is mainly due to people in smaller outlying towns in Illinois moving to the area for better economic/job opportunities.

The St. Louis Sun was a daily newspaper based in St. Louis, published by Ingersoll Publications. The Sun began publishing on September 25, 1989, but was never as competitive as the well-established St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Seven months after it started, the Sun ceased operations on April 25, 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madison County Transit</span> Public transit and bike trail system in Madison County, Illinois, U.S.

Madison County Transit, or MCT for short, is a bus and bike trail transportation system that serves the citizens of Madison County, which is located in Illinois approximately 20 miles (32 km) northeast of St. Louis. It was created in 1980 by the Madison County Board to improve transportation in Madison County, and is a completely separate transit system from the St. Louis Metro Transit system which includes MetroLink, which doesn't operate into Madison County, though the buses connect with many MetroBus routes and even serve MetroLink stations in East St. Louis, Belleville and Downtown St. Louis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lerner Newspapers</span> Chain of weekly newspapers in Chicago

Lerner Newspapers was a chain of weekly newspapers. Founded by Leo Lerner, the chain was a force in community journalism in Chicago from 1926 to 2005, and called itself "the world's largest newspaper group".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirkwood City Council shooting</span> 2008 mass shooting in Missouri

On February 7, 2008, a gunman went on a shooting rampage at a public meeting in the city hall, leaving six people dead and a seventh injured in Kirkwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, aged 52, shot one police officer with a revolver across the side street from city hall and took the officer's handgun before entering city hall. Thornton reached council chambers with these two pistols shortly after the meeting began. There, he shot a police officer, the public works director, two council members, the mayor, and a reporter. The shooter died from two gunshot wounds in a shootout with police.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Line (St. Louis MetroLink)</span>

The Red Line is the older and longer line of the MetroLink light rail system in Greater St. Louis. It serves 29 stations across three counties and two states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streetcars in St. Louis</span>

Streetcars in St. Louis, Missouri, operated as part of the transportation network of St. Louis from the middle of the 19th century through the early 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education in Greater St. Louis</span>

Education in Greater St. Louis is provided by more than two dozen public school districts, independent private schools, parochial schools, and several public library systems. Greater St. Louis also is home to more than thirty colleges and universities.

Miami Valley Today is an American semi-weekly newspaper published Wednesdays and Sundays in Troy, Ohio. It is owned by AIM Media Midwest.

Special School District of St. Louis County (SSD) is a county-wide school district for differently-abled children and for vocational studies in St. Louis County, Missouri. Its headquarters are in Town and Country.

Irving Lee Dilliard was an American journalist and author. He was born in Collinsville, Illinois, and died in Glen Carbon, Illinois at the age of 97. Dilliard was the editor of the editorial page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper from 1949 to 1957. Dilliard's editorials often advocated for expanded civil liberties and civil rights. Dilliard also wrote extensively on the Supreme Court of the United States.

References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2008-02-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ↑ Volkmann, Kelsey; Tritto, Christopher (2008-10-08). "Suburban Journals go subscription-only". American City Business Journals . Archived from the original on 2008-10-14.
  3. ↑ "'St. Louis Post Dispatch' Takes on Last of Suburban Journals' Printing". Archived from the original on 2008-04-23. Retrieved 2008-05-10.
  4. ↑ Missouri Legends: Famous People From The Show-Me State by John W. Brown. Page 166. Published by Reedy Press, St. Louis, 2008.
  5. ↑ Suburban Journals | News | 'My Space' hoax ends with suicide of Dardenne Prairie teen [ permanent dead link ]
  6. ↑ "Reporter Wounded in Missouri Shooting in Stable Condition". Archived from the original on 2008-02-10. Retrieved 2008-02-17.
  7. ↑ St. Louis - Daily RFT - Suburban Journals Fires Reporter Who Took Bullet During Kirkwood Shootings
  8. ↑ Suburban Journals | About Us |
  9. ↑ "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Ingersoll Cutting Costs At Chain". The New York Times. May 15, 1990.
  10. ↑ "LISTSERV 16.0 - Archives - Error". list.msu.edu.
  11. ↑ Journal Register Co. buys Ladue News - St. Louis Business Journal:
  12. 1 2 "SEC Info - Pulitzer Inc - '8-K' for 6/24/00 - EX-99". www.secinfo.com.
  13. ↑ "g7pulit0131 (Page 1)" (PDF).
  14. ↑ "Pulitzer's Owner Takes Prize for Frothy Numbers: Jonathan Weil - Bloomberg". Bloomberg News . 2012-02-21. Archived from the original on 2012-02-21. Retrieved 2023-05-25.
  15. ↑ Lee eliminates publisher posts at Suburban Journals - St. Louis Business Journal:
  16. ↑ "Suburban Journals cuts 14 jobs, four publications".
  17. ↑ "Suburban Journals Announces Layoffs and Restructuring". Archived from the original on 2014-01-02. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
  18. ↑ Staff REPORTS. "Suburban Journals to cut some print editions, 20 staffers". STLtoday.com.
  19. ↑ Suburban Journals cuts 2 print editions
  20. ↑ "Welcome to the Madison County Journal". Madison County Journal. 6 August 2014.
  21. ↑ Feast magazine debuts today, covering the St. Louis area food scene

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.