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.

Paxton Media Group, LLC
TypeFamily-owned
IndustryPublishing
Founded1896, Paducah, Kentucky
Headquarters201 South 4th Street, Paducah, Kentucky 42003 United States
Key people
David M. Paxton, President & CEO
ProductsNewspapers, Media
Footnotes / references
Sources:[1][2]

The company owns 32 daily newspapers and numerous weekly newspapers, mostly in the southern United States. Daily circulation totals 350,000. Holdings include The Paducah Sun, the High Point Enterprise in High Point, North Carolina, the Jonesboro Sun in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and the Daily Star in Hammond, Louisiana and The Daily Citizen in Searcy, Arkansas.

History

Paxton Media Group 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.[1]

At 4:20 p.m. May 28, 1957, WPSD television, (the PSD stands for Paducah Sun-Democrat) went on the air as the company-owned television station based in Paducah. It is an NBC affiliate.

The company operated only The Paducah Sun and WPSD-TV until 1989, when it began acquiring other newspapers.

In 1998, the company purchased Nixon Newspapers Inc which included the Wabash Plain Dealer, located in Wabash, Indiana.

In December 2004, Paxton Media Group purchased The Herald-Sun in Durham, North Carolina. At the time of the purchase Paxton Media Group already owned 7 other newspapers in North Carolina. Durham, N.C., is home to Duke University. In 2003, The Herald-Sun drew criticism[3] during the Duke Lacrosse false rape accusation scandal. In late December 2016, Paxton sold The Herald-Sun to The McClatchy Company.

In 2007, Paxton Media Group purchased three Indiana newspapers: the Marion Chronicle-Tribune (in July) from the Gannett Foundation; the Huntington Herald-Press (in May) from the Quayle family; and the LaPorte County Herald-Argus from Small Newspaper Group (in September).

Paxton purchased the Mayfield Messenger in Kentucky in June 2015.[4] In May 2016, Paxton purchased The Elkhart Truth in Indiana.[5]

In 2017, Paxton acquired the Grayson County News Gazette, the News Democrat Leader, and the Macon County Times from Civitas Media.[6] In January 2018, Paxton purchased the Daily Herald in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, from Wick Communications.[7] In June 2018, it purchased The Batesville Daily Guard in Arkansas from the Jones family.[8] In November 2018, Paxton purchased the Kentucky New Era.[9] In May 2019, it purchased The Rochester Sentinel in Indiana.[10] By June 2019, Paxton acquired four additional Arkansas newspapers, including Conway's Log Cabin Democrat, Clinton's Van Buren County Democrat, The Sun-Times in Heber Springs, and the Newport Independent.[11]

In July 2020, Paxton purchased the Dubois County Herald in Jasper, Indiana.[12] In October 2020, Paxton purchased the Wilkes Journal-Patriot in North Carolina.[13] In May 2021, Paxton purchased Landmark Community Newspapers, publisher of 47 daily and weekly newspapers in Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia.[14] It later resold some publications acquired in the Landmark purchase that it considered outside the company's footprint: The Las Vegas Optic in New Mexico to O'Rourke Media Group;[15] Huskers Illustrated to Nicholas Holdings;[16] and two newspapers in Iowa, the Red Oak Express and the Glenwood Opinion-Tribune, to J. Louis Mullen.[17]

In November 2022 Paxton acquired six North Carolina newspapers from Gannett Co., Inc. The additions include the Lexington Dispatch, the Asheboro Courier-Tribune, the Burlington Times-News, the Kinston Free Press, the New Bern Sun Journal, and The Daily News of Jacksonville.[18]

Business practices

Durham Herald-Sun

Paxton Media Group was criticized when it fired nearly 25 percent of the employees of The Herald-Sun, many of them longtime staples of the newsroom, the day it assumed ownership. Paxton defended the move by claiming that the newsroom was overstaffed and the salaries were causing the Durham, North Carolina paper to post annual losses.[1][19] According to the Durham-based Independent Weekly, sources familiar with the Herald-Sun, Co.'s accounting ledgers, the company was operating profitably at least 6 months prior to Paxton's $124 million purchase.[20]

Allegations of lackluster and biased reporting by Paxton Media Group's holdings became news, again, with the dismissal of charges against the suspects in the Duke lacrosse rape case, when it became clear that The Herald-Sun editorial policy would not permit the paper to publish criticism of Durham district attorney Mike Nifong, despite the fact that Nifong was facing ethics charges by the North Carolina State Bar and demands by the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys that Nifong remove himself from the case.[21][22][23][24][25] In December 2016, Paxton Media sold The Herald-Sun to The McClatchy Company, owner of a competitor newspaper, The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina.[26]

La Porte Herald-Argus

In September 2007, Paxton purchased the Herald-Argus of La Porte, Indiana amidst rumors that the paper would either be moved, merged, or have its staff severely cut, due to the recent acquisition of a number of rural newspapers in northern Indiana.[27] In order to allay those rumors, then-publisher John A. Newby wrote a column that firmly stated that the Herald-Argus was profitable and "lean" and therefore would not see any dramatic changes.[28][29] Despite published claims to the contrary, in October, shortly after taking over operation of the paper, Paxton Media laid-off about half its staff at the Herald-Argus and moved its production location to that of the Paxton-owned Herald-Palladium in St. Joseph, Michigan, which by Paxton's own admission, has negatively impacted the paper's ability to publish timely local news.[30][31] Reminiscent of the abrupt manner in which the Herald-Sun firings were conducted, at least one longtime Herald-Argus staffer was notified of her termination via certified mail while she recovered from surgery at home.[30][32] The remaining Herald-Argus staffers and the staffers at other nearby Paxton-owned papers were specifically instructed not to publish information regarding the Herald-Argus staff cuts and production changes.[30] The Herald-Argus' website has also removed the September 17, 2007 column which promised that there would be no staff cuts or relocation of the paper's offices under Paxton's watch.

In July 2008, Paxton consolidated operations even more, making the publisher, managing editor, and other editorial management the same for both papers.

High Point Enterprise

On November 15, 2007, reports indicate that Paxton dramatically cut the staff of the High Point Enterprise in High Point, North Carolina, which Paxton took control of in 2004.[33] This is the third round of layoffs since 1999, when Paxton first purchased a stake in the paper. Senior Enterprise staff frequently criticized Paxton's management of the paper, arguing that there was a quantifiable reduction in local coverage.[34]

Properties

Daily

Weekly

List is incomplete -

Other

References
  1. Clemmons, Laura A. (2005). "Paxton Media Group extends its influence far beyond its Western Kentucky base". RuralJournalism.org. Institute for Rural Journalism & Community Issues, University of Kentucky. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
  2. "Paxton Media Group LLC Company Profile". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
  3. "Critics decry local paper's coverage". The Chronicle. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  4. "Paxton Media Group Acquires Mayfield (KY) Messenger". Editor & Publisher. June 4, 2015. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  5. "Paxton Media Group Acquires Elkhart Truth". Editor & Publisher. May 2, 2016. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  6. "Quarterly Updates - 3rd Quarter 2017". Dirks, Van Essen & Murray. September 30, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  7. "Paxton Media Group purchases The Daily Herald". The Daily Herald. January 31, 2018. Archived from the original on May 16, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
  8. "Paxton Media acquires Batesville paper". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. June 5, 2018. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  9. "Kentucky New Era sells to Paxton Media Group". Kentucky New Era. November 30, 2018. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
  10. "Paxton Media buys Indiana daily". Newspapers & Technology. June 15, 2019. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  11. "Paxton Media Group acquires Log Cabin Democrat". Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
  12. "Paxton Media Group buys Jasper, Ind., newspaper". Messenger-Inquirer. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  13. "The Wilkes Journal-Patriot Acquired by Paxton Media Group". Fairfield Sun Times. October 20, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  14. "Paxton Media Group buying Landmark Community Newspapers". The Associated Press. May 26, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  15. "Optic acquired by O'Rourke Media Group". Las Vegas Optic. June 23, 2021. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  16. "Nicholas Holdings Acquires Huskers Illustrated From Paxton Media Group". Editor & Publisher. July 1, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  17. "J. Louis Mullen acquires the Red Oak Express and Glenwood Opinion-Tribune from Paxton Media Group". Editor & Publisher. September 1, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  18. Northam, Mitchell (December 9, 2022). "Kentucky-based Paxton Media Group buys six North Carolina newspapers from Gannett". Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  19. "Veteran Employees Surprised By Rapid Firings When Paxton Buys Herald-Sun". National Press Photographers Association. January 5, 2005. Retrieved December 21, 2007.
  20. Morgan, Fiona (January 12, 2005). "Paxton may have overpaid for Herald-Sun". The Independent Weekly. Archived from the original on March 7, 2007. Retrieved February 8, 2007.
  21. "Duke Rape Suspects Speak Out". 60 Minutes. October 15, 2006.
  22. Neff, Joseph (August 6, 2006). "Lacrosse files show gaps in DA's case". The News & Observer. Archived from the original on September 28, 2006.
  23. "Nifong's move". The News & Observer. December 23, 2006.
  24. "Investigate the investigation". The Charlotte Observer. December 23, 2006. p. 12A.
  25. "The prosecutor is guilty". The Star-Ledger. December 30, 2006. p. 022.
  26. Murawski, John (December 21, 2016). "McClatchy buying Durham Herald-Sun newspaper in North Carolina". McClatchy DC Bureau. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
  27. "Paxton Media Group buys another Northern Indiana paper, getting monopoly on dailies in county". The Rural Blog. September 9, 2007. Retrieved December 21, 2007.
  28. Newby, John A. (September 17, 2007). "Sale of H-A does not impact a legacy!". Herald-Argus. Google Cache. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  29. "Huntington (IN) Herald-Press Sold to Paxton Media Group". Suburban Newspapers of America. May 1, 2007. Archived from the original on August 11, 2007. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
  30. Staff (November 8, 2007). "Paxton Reported to be Cutting Dozens of Jobs in LaPorte, Ind". Editor and Publisher. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
  31. "Speak Out!: About those lottery numbers/Where're the stocks?". Herald-Argus. December 19, 2007. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
  32. Craig, Randy (November 9, 2007). "Things Fall Apart". Readership 101. Archived from the original on March 22, 2012. Retrieved December 21, 2007.
  33. Robinson, John (November 15, 2007). "Layoffs in High Point". Greensboro News & Record. Archived from the original on December 18, 2007. Retrieved December 21, 2007.
  34. Morgan, Fiona (December 8, 2004). "Herald-Sun becomes a link in chain". The Independent Weekly. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved December 21, 2007.
  35. "Sun Publishing Website". Archived from the original on September 9, 2005. Retrieved June 5, 2007.
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