| Industry | Newspaper Publishing |
|---|---|
Key people |
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| Website | boonenewspapers |
Boone Newspapers, Incorporated (BNI) is the parent company of a publishing business that includes dozens of newspapers as well as magazines, other published materials, and internet properties in the United States.[1] It is a private company and owns papers in smaller cities in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas, Michigan, Mississippi, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia.[2] The company is based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.[3]
Began by University of Alabama graduate Buford Boone (1909-1983), as of 2023 the company owned or managed 91 newspapers and other media products across Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.[4]
After originally owning Tuscaloosa Newspapers Inc. under the guidance of Carmage Walls,[5] Boone eventually took over the company and purchased additional papers.[6] In 2014, Boone Newspapers bought several newspapers from Evening Post Industries.[7]
Boone, who died of cancer in 1983, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for an anti-segregation editorial in the Tuscaloosa News, where he was the longtime editor and publisher, about the admission of the first Black student to the University of Alabama.[8] The Encyclopedia of Alabama said he was "one of only a handful of white newspaper leaders in the South to take a moderate stance on civil rights, advocating a calm, level-headed acceptance of desegregation."[9]
His son, James B. "Jim" Boone Jr. (1935-2023), created the media company that bears the family name. Long known as Boone Newspapers, Inc., it was renamed Boone Newsmedia in 2022 "to reflect its expansion into digital-centered media," the Associated Press reported.[4]
After Jim Boone's death in February 2023, Boone Newsmedia announced in October that Todd H. Carpenter, its CEO since 2004, would separate from the company leaving with several properties which he had jointly owned in his company, Carpenter Newsmedia LLC including newspapers in Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Boone's daughter, Catherine Boone Hadaway, was named senior vice president of Boone Newsmedia and Scott Stewart became the president and CEO of the company.[5]
Boone Newspapers include: