Community Newspapers

Publisher Duane Dunham began the Oak Creek Pictorial in 1956. By 1964 he had added the Greenfield Observer, Greendale Village Life, and the Hub in Hales Corners to his growing publishing empire. Three years later Community Newspapers, Inc bought the competing Tri-Town News which served Hales Corners, Muskego and Franklin. CNI expanded into the North Shore suburbs in 1974 when it bought the five Herald weekly newspapers from North Shore Publishing. These papers were the Glendale, Brown Deer, Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, and Fox Point/Bayside/River Hills Heralds. The largest addition was the 1979 purchase of 11 newspapers published by Shinner Publications including the Hartford, Menomonee Falls, Germantown, Elm Grove, Brookfield, New Berlin, and Wauwatosa papers. Finally, in 1983, the West Allis Star was added to the roster of suburban papers. By 1986, when Duane Dunham retired, CNI had a total of 23 community newspapers. Upon his retirement, the chain was sold to Sun Media corp of Cleveland, Ohio. It remained a major competitor of print journalism in the Milwaukee Metropolitan market until it was purchased by Journal Communications in 1997. By 2006, the suburban editions were consolidated into only 11 editions, losing the original newspaper names.

The list of the 23 weekly newspapers at their 1986 peak was as follows:

The Bay Viewer

Brookfield News

Brown Deer Herald

Cudahy Reminder-Enterprise

Elm Grove Elm Leaves

Fox Point, Bayside, River Hills Herald