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 ...
published in
Petersburg, Virginia
Petersburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,458. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines Petersburg (along with the city of Colonial Heights) with Din ...
. Its print edition is published Monday through Sunday morning, and its website is updated regularly throughout the day with breaking news, feature stories, photographs and videos.
History
The paper's roots trace to 1865, but its current moniker came about through the early-1920s merger of the ''Index-Appeal'' and the ''Evening Progress''. It was owned by various Petersburg businessmen until 1959, when
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 fo ...
of Canada purchased it. Thomson owned ''The Progress-Index'' until 1997, when it sold it to
Times-Shamrock Communications Times-Shamrock Communications is an American media company based in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The company, owned by the Lynett and Haggerty families of Scranton, lists among its assets four daily newspapers, six weekly newspapers, and nine radio stat ...
, a privately held media company based in
Scranton
Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. Its current building, at 15 Franklin St. in downtown Petersburg, was built in 1921, along with what was then a state-of-the-art press. This was before the merger of the two papers into ''The Index-Appeal & Evening Progress'', shortened to ''The Progress-Index'' in 1923. In 2014, Times-Shamrock sold ''The Progress-Index'' to
New Media Investment Group
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Additionally, in February 2018, after the Virginia Dealer magazine was discontinued, GateHouse Media Mid-Virginia Holdings launched the Virginia Wheels magazine in its place. One of the newest offerings from this publishing company is the Fort Lee Traveller, which was formerly published under government contract through Marcoa Publishing. In May 2018, the contract was awarded to the company and began publication. The County Register is the last publication to come to light from the Progress, serving additional surrounding counties. Late in 2019, citing decreases in circulation and advertising, the Herald-Post and the County Register stopped publishing.
On November 14, 2019, the boards of directors of GateHouse Media and Gannett Co. Inc. approved a merger of the two companies under the Gannett banner. The $1.13 billion deal created the largest daily newspaper chain in the nation. Under a single Gannett name, the company began undergoing some structure changes, including the elimination of the traditional "publisher" position in favor of separate silos covering news content, advertising content and business matters. The merger created a sibling partnership between The Progress-Index, a former GateHouse newspaper, and The News Leader in Staunton, Virginia, a longtime Gannett-held newspaper.
On July 27, 2020, The Progress-Index launched an all-new website with progress-index.com. It also began its new business model of a digital-first news content platform, with all news content, including breaking news and in-depth investigative pieces, appearing on the digital platforms first before appearing in the print versions. That move reflected a national trend in local journalism where people were relying much more on their electronic devices to read news and information in formats best suited to their daily lives. Over the next year, the newspaper has plans to significantly boost its digital subscription numbers.
On August 31, 2020, the circulation and production departments of The Progress-Index were outsourced to Lee Enterprises, owner and operator of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other Virginia newspapers, as part of a Gannett corporate initiative. For the first time in the newspaper's history, it would not be printed and circulated from its downtown Petersburg headquarters on Franklin Street. The official "last run" of the newspaper on the Petersburg presses was August 30, 2020.