The ''Belleville News-Democrat'' is a daily newspaper in

Belleville, Illinois Belleville is a city and the county seat of St. Clair County, Illinois, coterminous with the now defunct Belleville Township. It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville and the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. The p ...

. Focusing on news that is local to the area of southwestern Illinois, it has been published under various names for 150 years. As of 2009, it is published by

The McClatchy Company The McClatchy Company, commonly referred to as simply McClatchy, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law and based in Sacramento, California. It operates 29 daily newspapers in fourteen states and ...

, and is based in St. Clair County, Illinois. It publishes content in print as well as online at bnd.com.

History

The ''Belleville News-Democrat'' was founded in 1858 as the ''Weekly Democrat''. In the early 1860s, it merged with the ''Belleville News'' to become the ''Belleville News-Democrat''. It was a family-owned newspaper until 1972, when it was purchased by

Capital Cities Communications Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was an American media company. It was founded in 1985 when Capital Cities Communications purchased the much larger American Broadcasting Company. It eventually proposed a merger of equals with The Walt Disney Company and ...

. When

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

acquired Capital Cities, it briefly owned the ''News-Democrat'' until

Knight Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper brand ...

acquired the newspaper in 1997. McClatchy acquired the paper in 2006 with its purchase of Knight Ridder.

Distinction

The ''Belleville News-Democrat'' has been featured on the television programs ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

'', ''

Dateline A dateline is a brief piece of text included in news articles that describes where and when the story was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from wire services, the distributing organization i ...

'' and ''

Nightline ''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the progra ...

'', as an example of investigative reporting. In 2003, an article in ''

Editor & Publisher ''Editor & Publisher'' (''E&P'') is an American monthly trade news magazine covering the newspaper industry. Published since 1901, ''Editor & Publisher'' is the self-described "bible of the newspaper industry." Originally based in New York City, ...

'' called the ''News-Democrat'' one of "Ten newspapers that do it right" under the leadership of former publisher, Gary Berkeley, and former editor, Greg Edwards. It is also the only newspaper in Illinois or Missouri to grow net paid circulation for ten years in a row, and is a frequent winner in state and regional journalism awards. In 2007, ''News-Democrat'' reporters Beth Hundsdorfer and George Pawlaczyk won the

Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award The Robert F. Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism is a journalism award named after Robert F. Kennedy and awarded by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. The annual awards are issued in several categories and were est ...

for "Lethal Lapses", a series investigating errors of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services that resulted in the deaths of 53 children.

Staff

The newspaper employs approximately 280 people, plus about 75 at its weekly ancillary papers. The newsroom staff consists of 26 reporters, 12 editors, seven copy editors, four photographers, three newsroom assistants and an

editorial cartoonist An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary. Their cartoons are used to convey and question an aspect of daily news or curren ...

, (see:

Glenn McCoy Glenn McCoy (born 1965) is a conservative American cartoonist, whose work includes the comic strip '' The Duplex'' and the daily panel he does with his brother Gary entitled ''The Flying McCoys''. McCoy previously produced editorial cartoons u ...

Other publications

It publishes separate editions in Madison County and St. Clair County. The ''News-Democrat'' also publishes the following weekly papers: * ''The Highland News Leader'' * ''Tri-County Leader'' * ''O'Fallon Progress'' * ''Command Post'' (serving

Scott Air Force Base Scott Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in St. Clair County, Illinois, near Belleville and O'Fallon, east-southeast of downtown St. Louis. Scott Field was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the U ...

) * '' Legal Reporter'' * ''Penny Saver''

Counties served

Illinois

* St. Clair *

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

Bond Bond or bonds may refer to: Common meanings * Bond (finance), a type of debt security * Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States * Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemica ...

* Clinton *

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

* Monroe *

Marion Marion may refer to: People *Marion (given name) *Marion (surname) *Marion Silva Fernandes, Brazilian footballer known simply as "Marion" *Marion (singer), Filipino singer-songwriter and pianist Marion Aunor (born 1992) Places Antarctica * Mario ...

* Randolph *

Perry Perry, also known as pear cider, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally the perry pear. It has been common for centuries in England, particularly in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire. It is also made ...

Jefferson Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...

Missouri

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

* St. Louis City

References

External links

bnd.com official site

Official mobile website

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20071117195420/http://www.bnd.com/236/index.html the Lethal Lapses series {{McClatchy Newspapers published in Illinois McClatchy publications St. Clair County, Illinois Belleville, Illinois Former subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company