''The Commercial Dispatch'' is the 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, spor ...
of
Columbus, Mississippi
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Lowndes County, on the eastern border of Mississippi, United States, located primarily east, but also north and northeast of the Tombigbee River, which is also part of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Water ...
, United States. It was created from the merger of two older papers, the ''Commercial'' and the ''Dispatch'', in the early 20th century. The first issue of the consolidated newspaper was published on March 12, 1922. The ''Dispatch'' is published six days a week (no edition is produced on Saturday) at the company's headquarters on a
Goss Urbanite press. The paper is a longtime
family-owned business and community mainstay; it has been owned by four generations of the Imes family. The current editor and publisher is Peter Imes.
History
Consolidation
Vinton Birney Imes Sr. first went to work for Percy W. Maer at ''The Columbus Dispatch'' in 1910. Following Maer's death, Imes left ''The Columbus Dispatch'' and bought ''The Columbus Commercial''. The following year Imes, local attorney John Frierson and local dentist Dr. D.D. Griffin formed a partnership and purchased The Columbus Commercial from Maer's widow. Imes merged the two papers in 1922. A subscription was $3 per year for home delivery and $2 for delivery by
mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...
. The paper was a bi-weekly publication.
Post consolidation
In 1925 Imes moved the newspaper to its present location at 516 Main Street. ''The Commercial Dispatch'' became a daily paper in 1926.
Upon Imes's death on June 18, 1947 at the age of 58, his son,
Vinton Birney Imes Jr. took over as editor and publisher. Birney Imes Jr. carried on as editor and publisher for nearly 50 years. His son,
Birney Imes III assumed the leadership of the ''Dispatch'' in 1996 after the retirement of his father.
From 1956 to 2004, ''The Commercial Dispatch'' operated
WCBI-TV
WCBI-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Columbus, Mississippi, United States, serving the Columbus–Tupelo market as an affiliate of CBS, MyNetworkTV and The CW Plus. Owned by Morris Multimedia, the station maintains studios on ...
, the
CBS television affiliate for north Mississippi.
On June 8, 2009 ''The Commercial Dispatch'' began publishing ''The Starkville Dispatch'', a daily edition of ''The Commercial Dispatch'' that focuses on
Starkville, Mississippi. Both papers share the bulk of their content, including all advertising, but the local news pages in ''The Starkville Dispatch'' tend to focus on Starkville-specific content.
In January 2018, Peter Imes, the great-grandson of the first editor-publisher of The Commercial Dispatch, became the fourth man in the family to hold that title.
Circulation
Daily circulation is approximately 14,000.
In addition to the daily newspaper, the ''Dispatch'' maintains an online presence and publishes the quarterly magazine ''Catfish Alley''.
The paper has no local competition in the daily market in Columbus, but does compete with a local weekly, the ''
Columbus Packet'', and two daily newspapers in its regional coverage area, the ''Starkville Daily News'' and the West Point ''Daily Times Leader''. Subscriptions are currently about $12 per month. Rack papers sell for $0.75 Monday through Friday and $1.25 on Sunday.
Current management
* Publisher: Peter Imes
* Editor: Zack Plair
* Circulation: Michael Floyd
* Advertising: Beth Proffitt
* Controller: Mary Hardy
* Pre-Press: Tina Perry
* Mailroom: Christina Boyd
References
External links
*
Newspapers published in Mississippi
Lowndes County, Mississippi
Columbus, Mississippi
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