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.
The company owns 30 daily newspapers and numerous weekly newspapers, mostly in the southern United States. Daily circulation totals 350,000. Holdings include ''The Paducah Sun'', ''The Herald-Sun'' in Durham, North Carolina, '' The High Point Enterprise'' in High Point, North Carolina and the ''Jonesboro Sun'' in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
It was announced on July 2, 2007, that Paxton was buying the ''Marion Chronicle Tribune'' (Indiana) from the Gannett Foundation. Paxton purchased the ''Huntington Herald Press'' (Indiana) from the Quayle family in April of 2007.

Contents

History

Criticisms

Political bias

Reduction in content, quality

Properties

Newspapers

Daily

Weekly

Other

References

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 the late Jack Paxton, editor at the time and grandson of Edwin J. Paxton.
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.

Criticisms

Political bias

Paxton Media Group's various media outlets have been repeatedly criticized for uniformly promoting conservative viewpoints and Republican Party candidates, while criticizing liberal viewpoints and Democratic Party candidates. Recent examples include the headline "Don't Vote Democratic" on the front page of an election-week edition of ''The Cadiz Record''^[3] and the ''Paducah Sun's frequent criticism of Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo's investigation of the alleged corruption of Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher. CEO and President David Paxton defends the uniformly conservative tone of Paxton Media Group's holdings as simply the product "of growing up in Western Kentucky and the socially conservative environment" of the family homestead.¹

Reduction in content, quality

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 after assuming 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 Critics have noted a dramatic increase in the number of stories culled from syndication services, as well as an increase in the instances of multiple articles written by the same journalist appearing in the same day's newspaper.{fact} Similar faults have been found in the accuracy and reporting of other Paxton subsidiaries.³
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.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} Allegations have also been raised that ''The Herald-Sun'' editorial staff knew, from interviews and police reports, that significant details in the accuser's claim had changed repeatedly, but chose to ignore them, or publish articles which bolstered her claims.

Properties

Newspapers

Daily

★ ''The Courier'' - Russellville, Arkansas

★ ''The Daily Citizen'' - Searcy, Arkansas

★ ''The Jonesboro Sun'' - Jonesboro, Arkansas

★ ''Paragould Daily Press'' - Paragould, Arkansas

★ ''Douglas County Sentinel'' - Douglasville, Georgia

★ ''Griffin Daily News'' - Griffin, Georgia

★ ''Times-Georgian'' - Carrollton, Georgia

★ ''Connersville News-Examiner'' - Connersville, Indiana

★ ''The Courier-Times'' - New Castle, Indiana

★ ''The News-Dispatch'' - Michigan City, Indiana

★ ''Peru Tribune'' - Peru, Indiana

★ ''The Shelbyville News'' - Shelbyville, Indiana

★ ''The Times'' - Frankfort, Indiana

★ ''Vincennes Sun-Commercial'' - Vincennes, Indiana

★ ''Wabash Plain Deale'' - Wabash, Indiana

★ ''The Chronicle-Tribune'' - Marion, Indiana

★ ''The Messenger'' - Madisonville, Kentucky

★ ''Messenger-Inquirer'' - Owensboro, Kentucky

★ ''The Paducah Sun'' - Paducah, Kentucky

★ ''The Daily Star'' - Hammond, Louisiana

★ ''The Herald-Palladium'' - St. Joseph, Michigan

★ ''The Daily Corinthian'' - Corinth, Mississippi

★ ''The Daily Courier'' - Forest City, North Carolina

★ ''The Enquirer-Journal'' - Monroe, North Carolina

★ ''Henderson Daily Dispatch'' - Henderson, North Carolina

★ ''The Herald-Sun'' - Durham, North Carolina

★ ''High Point Enterprise'' - High Point, North Carolina

★ ''News-Topic'' - Lenoir, North Carolina

★ ''The Sanford Herald'' - Sanford, North Carolina

★ ''The Mountain Press'' - Sevierville, Tennessee

Weekly

''List is incomplete''

★ ''Benton Tribune-Courier'' - Benton, Kentucky

★ ''The Cadiz Record'' - Trigg County, Kentucky

★ ''Herald-Ledger'' - Eddyville, Kentucky

Other

★ WPSD - Paducah, Kentucky

★ Sun Publishing[1] - Paducah, Kentucky

References

★ Paxton may have overpaid for Herald-Sun

★ Inside The Herald-Sun: One year after a traumatic takeover by the Paxton Media chain, Durham’s hometown newspaper offers more local content, but less news.

★ List of Paxton Media Group daily newspapers
1. http://www.uky.edu/CommInfoStudies/IRJCI/reports/Clemmons.htm Retrieved 5 June 2007.
2. http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/137/137046.html Retrieved 5 June 2007.
3. http://www.bluegrassreport.org/bluegrass_politics/2006/11/more_shameless__1.html Retrieved 5 June, 2007.
4. Duke Rape Suspects Speak Out. ''60 Minutes.'' 15 Oct 2006.
5. Lacrosse files show gaps in DA's case. ''The News & Observer''. 6 August 2006.
6. Nifong's move. ''The News & Observer.'' 23 December 2006.
7. Investigate the investigation. ''The Charlotte Observer.'' 23 December 2006.
8. The prosecutor is guilty. ''The Star-Ledger.'' 30 December 2006.