Boone Newspapers expands to Ky. with purchase of The State Journal in Frankfort, the state capital

A recent front page had coverage
of a scandal in the legislature.

The State Journal in Frankfort, Ky., can be a difficult newspaper to run because it has two main audiences. The daily is fundamentally a community newspaper because its circulation is almost totally limited to Franklin County, which falls just short of being its own metropolitan area, with a population of 49,285 in 2010. By the broadest definition, that makes it rural, and most of the county is. However, Frankfort is also the state capital (the nation's fifth smallest, with a population of 27,741). That makes it the the residence of about 8,000 state employees, creating a high demand for state government and political news not normally found in a newspaper market of that size. So, The State Journal is a hybrid between a metro paper and community paper.

For 53 years, the Dix family of Wooster, Ohio, has owned The State Journal. Today, Dix Communications sold the paper to Frankfort Newsmedia LLC, mostly owned by Alabama-based Boone Newspapers Inc., for an undisclosed price. "Other owners are Natchez-based Carpenter Newsmedia LLC (CNL) and key BNI personnel," Boone says on its website. "Jim Boone of Tuscaloosa is BNI’s chairman. Todd Carpenter of Natchez is BNI’s president and chief executive officer and principal owner of CNL. . . . BNI owns and manages 70 newspapers in similar-sized communities in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Tennessee, Minnesota, Michigan and Ohio. The State Journal is its first Kentucky newspaper."

The State Journal will continue to be edited by Phil Case, 68, a longtime employee who has been editor since July 2014. “I am delighted to be afforded the opportunity to continue to direct the news operation with the Boone folks,” Case said in the Boone story. “I have been very impressed with their dedication to the communities in which their newspapers are located and their passion for local news will do nothing but enhance this newspaper going forward.” The paper's general manager will be Lloyd Lynch, a longtime employee who has been advertising director and once ran the pressroom. Following some equipment problems recently, the paper has been printed at The Courier-Journal in Louisville.