Community Newspapers, Inc. is an American publisherofnewspapers and advertising-related publications throughout the southeastern United States. The company was formed in 1967 by Newton Jerue Babb, and is based in Athens, Georgia. It owns and operates about 25 newspapers.[2]
Babb founded the company in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and helped it grow to control nearly 50 newspapers.[3] On January 1, 1985, Babb and his wife (who served as president of CNI) were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in a Holiday Inn hotel room in Tuxedo, North Carolina.[4][5] In March 1989 William J. Bresnan, Jeff DeMond, Thomas H. Wood and W.H. 'Dink' NeSmith purchased the company.[2][6]
In 1999, CNI sold the Lake City News & Post and The Weekly Observer of Hemingway to Thompson Newspapers Inc.[7] In 2006, Bresnan and DeMond were bought out and today the company is owned by Wood and NeSmith.[2][3] NeSmith is a past chairman of the Georgia Telecommunications Commission and former president of the Georgia Press Association.[3][8] In 2021, chief financial officer Mark Major replaced NeSmith as president and NeSmith took Wood's place as chairman of the board.[3]
In April 1977, CNI sold the Tribune-Times in Mauldin to Tri-City Media.[9] In March 1999, CNI agreed to acquired The Hartwell Sun, The News-Leader of Royston, and The Elberton Star (all of which were owned by Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.) in exchange for The Herald Independent of Winnsboro, The Dispatch-News of Lexington, S.C., and the Marion Star & Mullins Enterprise of Marion.[10] Later that month, CNI bought The Elbert County Examiner and combined it with the Star.[11] In September 2000 the company purchased the Lake City Reporter, Nassau County Record, the Palatka Daily News, and the Fernandina Beach News-Leader.[2] Those papers were formerly owned by the The New York Times Company.[12]
By August 2001, CNI had moved its headquarters into the a former Coca-Cola bottling plant built in 1928 in Athens, Georgia.[13] As of 2003, the company owned 36 weekly and three daily newspapers, as the company was pursuing the emphasis on weeklies as a differentiation strategy.[14] By 2004, CNI owned 174 weekly newspapers, more than any other company in the U.S.[15] A centralized approach to printing operations ("clustering"), where the multiple newspapers are printed in the same shop, saved costs.[16]
In 2006 CNI sold the Richmond County Daily Journal (Rockingham, N.C.), the Sylvania Telephone (Sylvania, Ga.), and The Citizen News (Edgefield, S.C.). In 2014, CNI sold the Dawson News & Advertiser (Dawsonville, Ga.).[2] In 2019, it closed the Andrews Journal and merged it with the Cherokee Scout.[17] As of 2023, approximately ten employees work at the company's headquarters in Athens. Another 500 work at other locations.[1]
