''The Herald-Palladium'' is a newspaper distributed in the

Southwest Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Peni ...

region serving all or part of Berrien,

Cass Cass may refer to: People and fictional characters * Cass (surname), a list of people * Cass (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Big Cass, ring name of wrestler William Morrissey * Cass, in British band Skunk Anansie * Cass, ...

Van Buren Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party, he ...

, and Allegan Counties.

History

The ''Herald-Palladium'' is a merger of many former local newspapers in the twin cities of

Benton Harbor Benton Harbor is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is 46 miles southwest of Kalamazoo and 71 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. According to the 2020 census, its population was 9,103. It is the smaller, by population, of ...

and

St. Joseph, Michigan St. Joseph, colloquially known as St. Joe, is a city and the county seat of Berrien County, Michigan. It was incorporated as a village in 1834 and as a city in 1891. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,365. It lies on the shore o ...

''Palladium'' predecessors

''Herald-Press''

The ''Herald-Press'' formed in 1916 in

St. Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers ...

from the merger of two other newspapers: * ''The Evening Herald'' was the second venture of ''Palladium's'' founder, Leonard Merchant. In 1877 he moved to St. Joseph and bought an existing newspaper, ''The Traveler and Herald''. He changed its name to ''The St. Joseph Weekly Herald.'' Merchant brought his son, Leonard E. Merchant into the business. They sold it to Ephriam W. Moore around 1900, who turned it into a daily afternoon paper. * ''The St. Joseph Press'' was founded as a weekly newspaper in 1888. In 1905, Ephriam Moore's nephew, Joseph Brewer, bought it and turned it into a daily newspaper. In 1916, uncle and nephew merged their operations.

''News-Palladium''

The ''News-Palladium'' was formed in 1904 from the merger of two newspapers: * The ''Benton Harbor Palladium'' was founded in 1868 and named after a newspaper in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

where its founder and his wife had previously worked. This newspaper is the earliest predecessor of the ''Herald-Palladium''. Leonard G. Merchant founded the weekly newspaper, but sold it in 1869 to J.P. Thresher. Over the next 16 years it was sold several more times, finally to Frank Gibson. In 1886, he converted it to a daily, called ''The Daily Palladium''. * ''The Evening News'', founded 1895 by John Nellis Klock, J. Stanley Morton and Humphrey S. Gray. The ''News'' outperformed the ''Palladium,'' prompting Frank Gibson to sell his paper to the competing concern in 1904. Klock and company in turn sold it to Moore in 1910.

''Herald-Palladium''

With the 1910 and 1916 sales and mergers, all four predecessor newspapers were under Moore's control, but operated as two separate newspapers, one in each city. In 1919, Klock and two new associates incorporated ''Palladium Publishing Co.'', as a vehicle to purchase Klock's Benton Harbor paper back from Moore upon his retirement. They then purchased the St. Joseph newspaper in 1928, once again consolidating ownership, but not operating companies or reporting. By 1965, operations had started to merge, with a shared publishing plant and advertising. The content also became common. The corporate structures were fully merged in 1970, and, the final change to a single masthead, ''The Herald-Palladium,'' occurred February 3, 1975. Palladium sold out to

Thomson Thomson may refer to: Names * Thomson (surname), a list of people with this name and a description of its origin * Thomson baronets, four baronetcies created for persons with the surname Thomson Businesses and organizations * SGS-Thomson Mic ...

in 1985. Thomson divested the paper to

Conrad Black Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (born 25 August 1944), is a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher, businessman, and writer. His father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Canadi ...

's Hollinger in 1996, which sold it on to

Paxton Media Group Paxton Media Group of Paducah, Kentucky, is a privately held media company with holdings that include newspapers and a TV station, WPSD-TV in Paducah. David M. Paxton is president and CEO. The company owns 32 daily newspapers and numerous weekl ...

in 2000.

References

External links

* Newspapers published in Michigan Berrien County, Michigan {{michigan-newspaper-stub