Most of the publications currently owned by Suburban Journals date 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 by ex-Post Dispatch composing room worker Bernard H. Nordmann. Bick's son,
Frank C. Bick, helped shape the fledgling chain, which grew to include 10 publications in St. Louis City, as well as
St. Louis,
Jefferson and
Franklin counties. Meanwhile, in northern St. Louis,
Arthur Morgan Donnelly bought the
Wellston Local in 1935 and rebranded it as the
Wellston Journal, focusing more on north and central areas of the city. Donnelly, with his sons James and Robert, later shifted attention to northern and western St. Louis County,
St. Charles County and eventually spread eastwards across the
Mississippi River to include the Illinois counties of
Madison,
St. Clair, and
Monroe; ultimately publishing 25 separate newspapers in the bi-state metropolitan St. Louis area. The Donnelly and Bick families competed against one another until 1970, when operations were eventually and cooperatively formalized as sister companies, creating the Suburban Newspapers of
Greater St. Louis; more commonly known as Suburban Journals. Circulation topped 820,000 households, making it one of the largest free-distribution community newspaper groups in the United States. In May 1984, 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. Ingersoll, who wanted to compete with the
Post-Dispatch and now defunct
St. Louis Globe-Democrat, used high-risk junk bonds and the advice of his friend Michael Milken to finance his acquisitions and eventually launched the failed
St. Louis Sun. Ingersoll was bought out by his partner and financier,
E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co., which formed 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. The company in 1999 had revenues of $151 million. Pulitzer, which owned the
Post-Dispatch and 11 other daily newspapers, in June 2000 bought the company, which then had 38 papers. It cost $165 million. In early 2007, Lee reorganized the chain's management and eliminated publisher positions in the nine offices. When the chain was acquired as part of Pulitzer's purchase out by Lee in 2005, the Suburban Journals published 35 papers. The bad economy, the effect of
the Internet on the newspaper business and the weight of the debt Lee took on in the purchase of Pulitzer combined to force major layoffs and consolidation in the chain. In 2009, the chain was cut to 10 editions. Additional cuts in 2011 brought the number of editions to six. Two more editions were cut in 2013. In August 2014 the
Collinsville Herald and the
Granite City Press-Record were combined to create the
Madison County Journal.
Feast was launched in August 2010. ==Editions==