Quincy Newspapers - History

History

The corporation was formed in Quincy on July 1, 1926, as a publishing company upon the consolidation of Quincy Herald, direct descendant of the Illinois Bounty Land Register first published in Quincy in 1835, and the Quincy Whig-Journal, descendant of the Quincy Whig founded in 1838. The Herald-Whig publishes 7 days a week.

The Herald was purchased in 1891 by three men from Rockford, IL, one of whom, Charles L. Miller, had earlier founded the Rockford Daily Register, the first newspaper to achieve a permanent existence there. Miller brought to The Herald his brother-in-law and nephew, respectively, Aaron Burr Oakley and Ray M. Oakley, the first two generations of the Oakleys in the newspaper business in Quincy. Miller spent four years in Quincy, returning to Rockford in 1896 to join Harry M. Johnson in ownership of the Rockford Republic. He retired as editor of the Republic in 1913 and died in 1921.

Two brothers from Decatur, Frank M. Lindsay, Sr. and Arthur O. Lindsay, Sr. bought The Quincy Whig in 1915, with Arthur Lindsay taking up residence in Quincy as president and manager. Frank Lindsay remained in Decatur with the Decatur Herald and formed an association with another Illinois newspaper family, the Schaubs. In 1920, the Lindsays consolidated The Whig and The Quincy Journal, founded in 1883.

With the consolidation of The Herald and The Whig-Journal in 1928, two Illinois newspaper families, Oakley and Lindsay, were joined in a business association that continues today through succeeding generations.

QNI entered broadcasting in 1947, the year it started Quincy's first commercial FM station, WQDI. The following year QNI purchased Quincy Broadcasting Co. to operate WGEM, the city's second AM station. WQDI then became WGEM-FM.

Quincy Broadcasting produced the Quincy region's first television broadcast on Sept. 4, 1953, on WGEM-TV (NBC). Quincy Broadcasting also operates the Hotel Quincy, which houses all WGEM AM FM TV studios, as a residential/transient hotel.

In 1969, QNI and six other newspaper entities formed American Newspapers Inc., which bought The New Jersey Herald in Newton, NJ, converting the semi-weekly to a daily and Sunday publication in 1970. QNI acquired controlling interest in American Newspapers in 1980 and became sole owner in 1986.

Beginning in the 1970s, QNI began a major expansion into television. WSJV-TV (ABC, now FOX), in South Bend-Elkhart, IN, was acquired in 1974, KROC-TV (now KTTC-TV/NBC) in Rochester, MN, in 1976, WHIS-TV (now WVVA-TV/NBC) in Bluefield, WV, in 1979, KTIV-TV (NBC) in Sioux City, IA, in 1989, and WREX-TV (NBC) in 1995. The Merchant, a weekly shopper in Quincy was also purchased in 1995.

In June 2001, QNI purchased from Shockley Communications Corporation the five Wisconsin ABC stations: WKOW - Madison; WAOW - Wausau; WQOW - Eau Claire; WYOW - Eagle River; and WXOW - La Crosse. Also purchased from SCC at the time was ProVideo of Wisconsin, Inc. consisting of a component digital online suite and a fully integrated non-linear online suite in Madison, Wisconsin.

As a part of the Shockley Communications Corporation purchase, KTTC Television, Inc. has a shared services agreement with KXLT-TV, the FOX affiliate in Rochester, MN. KTTC provides all services for KXLT excluding sales, traffic, and programming.

On July 1, 2006 QNI purchased KWWL in Waterloo, Iowa from Raycom Media. KWWL is an affiliate of NBC. The station is the primary NBC affiliate for the northeast quarter of the state of Iowa. The station's headquarters are in Waterloo, Iowa, and they also operate newsrooms in Cedar Rapids and Dubuque.

In February 2009, QNI purchased Crandon, Wisconsin's WBIJ (Channel 4) from the widow of the station's founder, with the intention to operate the station as a satellite station of WAOW. QNI subsequently renamed the station WMOW to conform with its other Wisconsin properties.