Babb founded the company in
Spartanburg, South Carolina, and helped it grow to control nearly 50 newspapers. The first newspaper in its portfolio was the
Cherokee Scout. 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. In March 1989 William J. Bresnan, Jeff DeMond, Thomas H. Wood and W.H. 'Dink' NeSmith purchased the company. In 1999, CNI sold the
Lake City News & Post and
The Weekly Observer of Hemingway to Thompson Newspapers Inc. In 2006, Bresnan and DeMond were bought out and today the company is owned by Wood and NeSmith. In 2021, chief financial officer Mark Major replaced NeSmith as president and NeSmith took Wood's place as chairman of the board. 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. Later that month, CNI bought
The Elbert County Examiner and combined it with the
Star. In September 2000 the company purchased the
Lake City Reporter, Nassau County Record, the
Palatka Daily News, and the
Fernandina Beach News-Leader. By August 2001, CNI had moved its headquarters into a former Coca-Cola bottling plant built in 1928 in Athens, Georgia. 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. By 2004, CNI owned 174 weekly newspapers, more than any other company in the U.S. A centralized approach to printing operations ("clustering"), where the multiple newspapers are printed in the same shop, saved costs. 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.). In 2024, CNI sold the
Palatka Daily News. In 2026, CNI sold nine newspapers to
Paxton Media Group. The sale included
The Franklin Press, The Highlands Highlander, Mitchell News-Journal,
Smoky Mountain Times, Clay County Progress, Cherokee Scout, The Graham Star, The Blue Ridge News Observer, and
Ellijay Times-Courier. == CNI newspapers ==