''The Paducah Sun'' is a 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 ...

Paducah, Kentucky Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Missour ...

, owned by the family-run

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 ...

. The paper was formerly known as the ''Paducah Sun-Democrat''. The publisher is Bill Evans. Matt Jones is the general manager. ''The Sun'' is the most-read newspaper in Kentucky's

Jackson Purchase The Jackson Purchase, also known as the Purchase Region or simply the Purchase, is a region in the U.S. state of Kentucky bounded by the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, and the Tennessee River to the east. Jackson's ...

region. It is the area's only daily news paper. The newspaper's combined online and print subscriptions total 24,768 on weekdays, 23,455 on Saturdays, and 26,833 on Sundays, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation's last official audit, taken on March 31, 2008.

History

According to the Historic Downtown Paducah special section of the ''Sun'' published January 8, 2003, the newspaper traces it roots to 1896, when a group of investors headed by William F. Paxton launched ''The Evening Sun'' by buying the assets of the failing ''Paducah Standard'' at 214 Broadway. The cost was $8,900, and the men started with $10,000 capital. The newspaper did not make a profit until 1918. In 1929, Paxton's son, Edwin J. Paxton, who had taken over as editor, bought out the rival ''News-Democrat''. After the merger, the newspaper became ''The Sun-Democrat'', and operations were moved to the current location at 408 Kentucky Avenue in 1934. The name changed to The Paducah Sun in 1978 at the request of Jack Paxton, editor at the time and grandson of Edwin J. Paxton. In April 2008, ''The Paducah Sun'' printed the first newspapers on its new press. Completed in December 2007, the new building is a $10.7 million facility in downtown Paducah. It is a high-tech production building housing the new press with the entire southwest wall made of glass. The paper prints around midnight and is viewable to passersby.

Operation

''The Paducah Sun'', the flagship newspaper of Paxton Media Group, serves western Kentucky and southern

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, providing the most complete local news and sports coverage for the 17-county region. ''The Sun'' also offers additional publications, such as the quarterly ''Posh magazine'', and monthly editions of ''House Call'' and the ''Four Rivers Business Journal'', to meet the eclectic tastes and interests of its readers.

Controversy

On November 14, 2003, ''Paducah Sun'' Editor and Publisher Jim Paxton, then 48, was arrested in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, and charged with

driving under the influence of alcohol Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash. In the United States, alcohol is invo ...

, possession of a handgun while under the influence, unlawful possession of a weapon and having an open alcoholic-beverage container. These records can be found in the office of the Criminal Court Clerk of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County. ''The Paducah Sun'' also ran stories about the arrest.http://www.paducahsun.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?200311/20+0gQl_news.html+20031120 Jim Paxton was forced by the Paxton Media Group to take an indefinite leave of absence from his work. He subsequently pleaded guilty to all charges.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paducah Sun, The Newspapers published in Kentucky Paducah, Kentucky Publications established in 1896