The ''Laurel Leader-Call'' is a thrice-weekly

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

published Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in

Laurel Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mus ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, United States, covering Jones County. It is owned by Gin Creek Publishing, which purchased the name and subscriber list from

CNHI CNHI, LLC (formerly Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.) is an American publisher of newspapers and advertising-related publications throughout the United States. The company was formed in 1997 by Ralph Martin,

in April 2012. Gin Creek Publishing is owned by businessman Jim Cegielski, who is also the Leader-Call's publisher. For a century Laurel's only

daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

, the paper was founded as ''The Laurel Daily Argus'' August 11, 1911, by Edgar G. Harris (1876-1953). It later changed its name to the ''Laurel Daily Leader'' The ''Laurel Morning Call'' and the ''Laurel Daily Leader'' combined to form an evening newspaper called The ''Laurel Leader-Call'' on February 2, 1930. The paper was owned by

Thomson Newspapers The Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies. It was established in 1989 following a merger between International Thomson Organisation Ltd (ITOL) and Thomson Newspapers. In 2008, it purchased Reuters Group to form ...

for several years. Thomson sold it in 1993 to

American Publishing Company Sun-Times Media Group (formerly Hollinger International) is a Chicago-based newspaper publisher. History Sun-Times Media Group was founded in 1986 under the name ''American Publishing Company'', as a holding company for Hollinger Inc.'s Ameri ...

. American Publishing sold to Community Newspaper Holdings in 1999. On September 1, 2011, the paper's owner, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., announced that the ''Laurel Leader-Call'' would begin publishing on a four-day schedule: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday. The newspaper's website continued to provide news, features, sports, photos and video on a daily basis until it shut down nearly seven months later, along with the newspaper itself. CNHI folded the ''Leader-Call'' on March 29, 2012. In April 2012 the ''Leader-Call'' name and subscriber list was purchased by Gin Creek Publishing, a local business that had published the weekly ''The ReView of Jones County'' since 2007. ''The ReView'' ceased operation and the ''Laurel Leader-Call'' was reborn as a three-day-a-week publication, beginning with the April 19, 2012, edition. New publisher-editor Mark Thornton said that "People who remember when the ''Leader-Call'' was family-owned remember that it was a much better paper then. We plan to restore that proud tradition." Owner Jim Cegielski has used his platform at the ''Laurel Leader-Call'' to express both libertarian and right-wing viewpoints. In 2013, he earned praise for defending the Leader-Call's decision to feature a story and a photo of a lesbian couple's wedding in Laurel at a time when the State of Mississippi did not recognize same-sex marriages. Cegielski later became a vocal

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

supporter, writing in a March 2020 op-ed that "mainstream media is the real virus" in reference to critical coverage of Trump's handling of COVID-19. In June 2020, Cegielski published another op-ed titled "The war against white people" which he claimed that

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

protesters are part of "a group that is the equivalent of the

KKK The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

" and "openly hates white people."

References

External links

* {{Laurel, Mississippi Newspapers published in Mississippi Jones County, Mississippi