Newspaper Profiles
The Beacon-News, Aurora
The Aurora Beacon is first published in 1846. In 1905 Col. Ira C. Copley bought the Aurora Beacon, merging it with the Aurora News and three other newspapers into the Daily Beacon-News, which first appeared on January 2, 1912. What later became Copley Press sold its Fox Valley Press Inc. division to Hollinger International in 2000, including the Beacon News in Aurora, Courier News in Elgin, the Herald-News in Joliet and the News Sun in Waukegan. Hollinger also bought Fox Valley Press' Sun Publications in Naperville, a group of 13 weekly papers. Those newspapers are now owned by Sun-Times Media Holdings, LLC.
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Daily News was first published in 1929. Marshall Field III started the Chicago Sun newspaper on Dec. 4, 1941 -- three days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor – as an alternative to the right-wing Chicago Tribune. In 1947, Field III bought the Chicago Daily Times. The Chicago Sun was merged with the Chicago Daily Times to create the Sun-Times in 1948. Marshall Field IV, publisher of the Sun-Times from 1950 to 1965, bought the Chicago Daily News in 1959. The Daily News published its last edition on March 4, 1978.
The Courier-News, Elgin
The Daily Bluff City, Elgin, Illinois' first newspaper, was launched in 1874. It merged with The Elgin Daily News in 1876. The Elgin Courier-News was later created in 1925 from a merger of The Elgin Daily News and The Elgin Daily Courier, which was founded in 1884. The Courier-News was purchased by what is now Sun-Times Media in 2000.
The Herald-News, Joliet
The Joliet News was first published in 1877 and the Joliet Herald was launched in 1904. Col. Ira C. Copley bought The Herald in 1913 and added the printing equipment and circulation lists of The News to his company in 1915, when he merged the two papers to create the Herald News. What later became Copley Press sold its Fox Valley Press Inc. division to Hollinger International in 2000, including the Beacon News in Aurora, Courier News in Elgin, the Herald-News in Joliet and the News Sun in Waukegan. Hollinger also bought Fox Valley Press' Sun Publications in Naperville, a group of 13 weekly papers. The former Hollinger is now Sun-Times Media.
Lake County News-Sun
Frank H. Just launches the weekly Independent in Libertyville and buys the Waukegan Daily Sun in 1906. He edited both papers and in 1911 changed the papers' names to The Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun. He sold the Sun that year, and in 1916 launched a new paper, the Lake County Register, to compete with the Sun. He started the Waukegan Daily News in 1921 and continued building both enterprises and gaining in circulation. Heated competition forced the Sun's owners to sell it in 1929 to a group of Chicago investors with reported links to organized crime, but the stock market crash that year left the investors without the money to meet their loan commitments. Just - a Republican crusader against organized gambling - grabbed the opportunity and purchased The Daily Sun in 1930. He merged the papers to create The Waukegan News-Sun. The paper stayed in the Just family until 1984, when The Copley Press added it to its roster of 11 daily papers. Copley Press sold its Fox Valley Press Inc. division to Hollinger International in 2000, which is now Sun-Times Media.
Naperville Sun
The Naperville Sun, established as a weekly newspaper in July 1935, has flourished as Naperville's population has grown to 140,000. Over time the paper has added more editions, and since 2003 it has published six times a week. With a circulation of about 20,000, the Sun is the No. 1 local news provider for the fourth-largest city in Illinois. The Naperville Sun was purchased by what is now Sun-Times Media in 2000.
Pioneer Press
Pioneer Press is a chain of 39 weekly community newspapers, purchased by what is now Sun-Times Media in 1989, that serves the northern, northwest and western suburbs. Pioneer's storied history has seen the chain's papers offer hyper-local coverage to towns including Oak Park (since 1878), Barrington (1889) and Lake Forest (1896).
Post-Tribune, Merrillville, Ind.
The Gary Weekly was launched in 1909 to serve the brand-new steel industry on the shores of Lake Michigan. It later becomes a daily paper and is renamed the Gary Tribune as the region grows. In 1921, the Gary Tribune merges with the Gary Evening Post, which was launched in 1909. The newspaper dropped “Gary” from the masthead in 1966 under new ownership to better reflect the growing Northwest Indiana region. The Post-Tribune was acquired by what is now Sun-Times Media in 1998.
SouthtownStar
The SouthtownStar is the 2007 merger of two of Chicago's finest news institutions and more than 200 years combined of journalism excellence: the Daily Southtown, launched in 1906 as the Englewood Economist, and Star Newspapers launched in 1901. The Englewood Economist In 1924, the paper merged with two other papers in expanding areas south and west of Englewood, and the Southtown Economist was born. It became a daily newspaper in 1978, the Southtown became a daily newspaper. American Publishing, later Hollinger International, bought the Daily Southtown from Pulitzer Publishing Co. in 1994. Star Newspapers, started in Chicago Heights in 1901, was acquired by the Sun-Times Co. in 1986.