- Suburban Journals
Infobox_Newspaper
name =
type = Chain of communitynewspapers
format =Broadsheet
owners =Lee Enterprises
editor = Dave Bundy
publisher = Bob Williams
foundation = Various
headquarters = 14522 South Outer Forty Rd.Town and Country ,Missouri 63017
USA | circulation = 637,000 weekly
website = [http://www.stltoday.com/ STLtoday.com]
ISSN =Suburban Journals is a group of 40 publications in the
St. Louis region owned byLee Enterprises .The group, known as Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, publishes 31 community newspapers, the "Ladue News" and "St. Louis' Best Bridal" magazine. The chain reaches 637,000 households. [http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/images/statsreader_sj.pdf]
Publications are grouped in regional offices, each with its own editor, in Town and Country, Mo.;
Collinsville , Ill.; Festus, Mo.; Columbia, Ill.; St. Peters, Mo.; Warrenton, Mo.; and two in St. Louis.The newspapers are independent of the Lee-owned
St. Louis Post-Dispatch , but do share some resources, such a technical assistance and, as of May 2008, printing. [ [http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003791487 'St. Louis Post Dispatch' Takes on Last of Suburban Journals' Printing] ]The companies, which were both previously owned by Pulitzer Inc., also share a common website, stltoday.com.
The chain's main competition is the "Post-Dispatch" and community-focused "Webster-Kirkwood Times" and "South County Times" in Missouri and "Alton Telegraph," "Edwardsville Intelligencer" and "
Belleville News Democrat " in Illinois.It is by some counts the largest community chain of newspapers in the country. [ [http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2000/03/06/story2.html Suburban papers price: $265 million - St. Louis Business Journal: ] ]
The chain employed 415 full-time workers in 2006 [http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2007/02/19/story12.html?page=2 Lee eliminates publisher posts at Suburban Journals - St. Louis Business Journal: ] ] , but cut 14 positions in August, 2008 as part of a cost-cutting move by Lee. Staffing was further reduced on September 26, 2008 when the Journals closed three sales offices, cutting the chain's number of sales offices in half, resulting in more than 30 jobs lost [http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/10/06/story2.html] . The Suburban Journals currently have 27 publications, after cutting four papers in 2008. When the chain was acquired as part of Pulitzer's purchase out by Lee in 2005, the Suburban Journals published 35 papers, a loss of eight publications in three years. [http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2008/09/08/story9.html]
The papers are printed at the Pulitzer Publishing Center, in
Maryland Heights ,Mo.Newspapers
Missouri
* Jefferson County Journal
* Meramec Journal"
* News-Democrat Journal
* Ladue News
* Northwest County Journal
* Hazelwood-Bridgeton Journal
* Overland-St. Ann Journal
* North County Journal
* Northeast County
* North Side Journal
* St. Louis' Best Bridal
* South City Journal
* South Side Journal
* Southwest City Journal
* South County Journal
* Southwest County Journal
* Oakville-Mehlville Journal
* St. Charles Journal
* St. Peters Journal
* O'Fallon Journal
* Mid-County Journal
* Citizen Journal
* Kirkwood-Webster Journal
* West County Journal
* Press Journal
* Chesterfield Journal
* Tri-County JournalIllinois
* Granite City Press Record Journal
* Collinsville Herald Journal
* Edwardsville Journal
* Monroe County Clarion
* Millstadt-Smithton Enterprise
* St. Clair JournalNotable staff
*Steve Pokin, a reporter and columnist for the "St. Charles Journal," in November 2007 broke the story of
Megan Meier , a Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, teen who committed suicide after being scorned by a fictitious friend on the social networking siteMySpace [ [http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2007/11/11/news/sj2tn20071110-1111stc_pokin_1.ii1.txt Suburban Journals | News | 'My Space' hoax ends with suicide of Dardenne Prairie teen ] ] .*Todd Smith, a reporter for the "Kirkwood-Webster Journal," was shot in the hand during the February 2008 shooting inside City Hall in Kirkwood, Mo. [ [http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003708889 Reporter Wounded in Missouri Shooting in Stable Condition ] ]
History
Most of the publications currently owned by Suburban Journals date back to the early 1900s as independent newspapers. Many were in direct competition with one another.
By the 1930s, the big adversaries in south St. Louis were the "South Side Journal" -- renamed from the "Cherokee News" after Frank X. Bick bought it in 1933 -- and "39th Street Neighborhood News," launched in the summer of 1922 ex-Post Dispatch composing room worker Bernard H. Nordmann [ [http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/about_us/ Suburban Journals | About Us | ] ] .
The two competed against each other until 1970, when the operations merged into St. Louis Suburban Newspapers. Bick's son, Frank C. Bick, helped shape the fledgling chain, which grew to include 10 publicans in St. Louis and St. Louis, Jefferson and Franklin counties.
Meanwhile in northern St. Louis, Arthur M. Donnelly in 1935 bought the "Wellston Local" and rebranded it the "Wellston Journal," focusing more on west and central areas of the city. Donnelly later shifted attention to norther St. Louis County, St. Charles County and Madison County in Illinois, eventually creating 25 papers.
All three operations were eventually merged into the Suburban Newspapers of Greater St. Louis. Circulation topped 820,000 [ [http://cache.zoominfo.com/CachedPage/?archive_id=0&page_id=642827049&page_url=%2f%2fwww.stljr.org%2fpages%2farchives%2fapril2000.htm&page_last_updated=3%2f21%2f2004+7%3a31%3a41+PM&firstName=Bernard&lastName=Nordmann ZoomInfo Cached Page ] ] .
In the early 1980s, the group was snapped up by Ingersoll Publications Co., a firm headed by Ralph Ingersoll II, whose father lead the innovative "PM" newspaper in 1940s New York City [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DD163FF936A25756C0A966958260 THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Ingersoll Cutting Costs At Chain - New York Times ] ] .
Ingersoll, who wanted to compete with the "Post Dispatch" and now defunct
St. Louis Globe-Democrat ] , used high-risk junk bonds to finance his acquisitions and eventually launched the failedSt. Louis Sun [ [http://list.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9909d&L=aejmc&P=5183 AEJMC Archives - September 1999, week 4 (#39) ] ] .Ingersoll was bought out by his partner and financier, E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co., which formed a the Journal Register Co., the owner of 25 daily newspapers, including the "New Haven Register" and "Alton Telegraph." The chain became the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis.
In 1997, it bought the "Ladue News" [ [http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/1997/12/15/daily3.html Journal Register Co. buys Ladue News - St. Louis Business Journal: ] ] .
The company in 1999 had revenues of $151 million [http://www.secinfo.com/dsvR3.53pn.d.htm SEC Info - Pulitzer Inc - 8-K - For 6/24/00 - EX-99 ] ] .
Pulitzer, which owned the "Post Dispatch" and 11 other daily newspapers, in June 2000 bought the company, which then had 38 papers [ [http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/resources/pulitzertimeline.pdf g7pulit0131 (Page 1) ] ] . It cost $165 million. Pulitzer then sold the group to Lee in summer 2005 for $1.46 billion [ [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=aVVo0NhIPMQs&refer=columnist_weil Bloomberg.com: Opinion ] ] .
In early 2007, Lee reorganized the chain's management and eliminated publisher positions in the eight offices.
Controversy
In April 2008, the Suburban Journals closed their last remaining print shop resulting in the loss of 37 jobs. Lee Enterprises claims that the reason for the closing is to outsource the printing to a more capable press owned by its sister paper the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. One notable displacement was of, a supervisor who after 20 years of service was given 10 days notice of termination. "I was not chosen because I started 3 months too late," said the employee, referring to the decesion to transfer two people from the department to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . This is the latest in a string of major lay-offs by Lee Enterprises. Less than 4 months prior the St. Louis Post-Dispatch laid off 31 employees in a move to reduce costs.
Notes
ources
*A 2001 "
Riverfront Times " article about the relationship between the "Post-Dispatch" and Suburban Journals reporters [http://news.riverfronttimes.com/2001-07-18/news/news-hole/]
* An article about Ingersoll [http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3246]External links
* [http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com Suburban Journals website]
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/10903227@N06/ Suburban JournalsFlicker site]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
