Richardson, who had 13 papers in Ky. and Tenn., dies at 70

Dennis Richardson

Dennis Richardson, who published newspapers in Kentucky and Tennessee and was the first in Kentucky to consolidate newspapers across county lines, died suddenly at his home in Camden, Tenn., Monday, July 26. He was 70. Funeral services were held this morning at Plunk Funeral Home in Camden.

Dennis and his wife, Lisa, owned Magic Valley Publishing, which has 13 newspapers and two radio stations. In 2017 they consolidated three newspapers at Kentucky's southwestern tip  — the Fulton Leader, the Hickman Courier and the Hickman County Gazette, into The Current, a weekly named for the Mississippi River and serving Fulton and Hickman counties, which are heavily agricultural and have lost population for decades. MVP sold The Current to Missouri-based Lewis County Press in 2018.

Richardson began his career as sports editor of the Paris Post-Intelligencer and was editor of the Weakley County Press and a copy editor at the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle. He was a director of the National Newspaper Association and the Tennessee Press Association, of which his son, Daniel, is president.