The ''Journal Star'' is the major 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, sport ...
for
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria Metropolitan Area in Centr ...
, and surrounding area. First owned locally, then employee-owned, it became a
Copley Press entity in 1996. In 2007, the paper was sold to
Fairport, New York-based
GateHouse Media.
History
The oldest ancestor of the ''Journal Star'', the ''Peoria Daily Transcript'', was founded by N.C. Nason and first published on December 17, 1855.
The ''Peoria Journal'' founded as an afternoon paper by Eugene F. Baldwin, the owner of the ''
El Paso Journal'' and a former editor of the ''Daily Transcript'', and J. B. Barnes, and first publisher on December 3, 1877. Henry Means Pindell started the ''Peoria Herald'' in 1889; and soon bought out the ''Daily Transcript'', forming the ''Herald-Transcript''. Baldwin, who had since left the ''Journal'', started the ''Peoria Star'', with Charles M. Powell on November 7, 1897. Pindell bought the ''Journal'' in 1900, sold the ''Herald-Transcript'' in 1902, and, after that newspaper had become the ''Transcript'', bought it back in 1916 and merged it with the ''Journal'', creating the ''Peoria Journal-Transcript'', with the ''Transcript'' in the morning and the ''Journal'' in the afternoon.
In 1944, the ''Journal'' and ''Transcript'' and their rival ''Star'' combined presses as Peoria Newspapers Inc. with the ''Star'' as a morning paper and the ''Journal-Transcript'' as an afternoon paper, but retained their competition in journalism until 1954, when a full merger was agreed to. Once the agreement was reached, both the morning and afternoon papers immediately changed their names to the ''Journal Star''. To hold the merged newspaper, the current newspaper headquarters were built near War Memorial Drive (
U.S. Route 150) and the
McClugage Bridge; the first edition from the new presses was on November 14, 1955.
During a newspaper strike in 1958, members of the
Newspaper Guild printed a temporary paper, ''The Peoria Citizen''.
In the
1980 presidential election, the ''Journal Star'' endorsed
Libertarian candidate
Ed Clark
Edward E. Clark (born May 4, 1930) is an American lawyer and politician who ran for governor of California in 1978, and for president of the United States as the nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1980 presidential election.
Clark is an ...
.
[ Doherty, Brian. '' Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement'', pg. 414]
Between 1984 and 1990, the ''Journal Star''
Employee Stock Ownership Plan bought about 83 percent of the company, making it effectively employee-owned. It company also bought the ''
Galesburg Register-Mail'' of
Galesburg, Illinois, in 1989. However, the success for the employees had the opposite effect for the company itself, as it had to buy back stock of large numbers of early retirees. The paper was sold to
Copley Press, owned by Helen Copley, in 1996; Copley also owned the
downstate Illinois papers the ''
State Journal-Register'' in
Springfield, Illinois and the ''
Lincoln Courier''.
When Copley purchased the paper in 1996, the daily circulation was 75,000+. According to a Knight Foundation report in 2005, the ''Journal Star'' circulation is now 65,126. The ''Journal Star'' is the highest-circulation newspaper in downstate Illinois and the fourth-highest circulation Illinois newspaper. As of September 2006, the ''Journal Star'' was the 136th-largest newspaper in the United States.
References
External links
pjstar.com— ''Peoria Journal Star'' official website
{{Gannett
Newspapers established in 1855
1855 establishments in Illinois
Copley Press publications
Newspapers published in Illinois
Gannett publications
Mass media in Peoria, Illinois