KPC Media Group

History

The Daily Sun and Daily News in Kendallville merged in 1911 after having competed as daily newspapers for five years, and as weekly newspapers for decades. The Sun traced its history back to the Noble County Journal (founded c. 1860); the Weekly News began in 1877. The two newspapers' publishers, O.E. Michaelis and George W. Baxter, established Kendallville Publishing Company Inc. to run the new Kendallville News-Sun. They established offices on North Main Street in Kendallville, in the same building where KPC Media Group remains headquartered today, more than 100 years later.

Baxter and Michaelis sold the newspaper to Charles O. Merica in 1913; his wife Alice Merica inherited it in 1918 and remained publisher until her death on January 25, 1969, at age 103. She was the oldest newspaper publisher in the United States.

George O. Witwer, publisher from 1969 to 2001, oversaw the company's expansion outside Kendallville, purchasing in December 1971 The Evening Star of Auburn, Indiana, a newspaper that has served DeKalb County since 1871 (since 1913 as a daily). In the 21st century, KPC converted the newspaper to morning publication, seven days a week, and it is now called The Star.

In May 1975, the company bought The Advance Leader of Noble County, Indiana, a weekly newspaper with its roots in the Cromwell Advance (1912) and Ligonier Leader (1880).

Around the turn of the 21st century, the company bought two more properties in adjoining markets, The Garrett Clipper in southern DeKalb County, founded in 1885 and integrated into KPC October 1, 1999, and The Herald Republican of Angola, Indiana in August 2001. The Herald Republican, a semiweekly newspaper at the time KPC bought it, had been formed by Home News Enterprises in 1982 by combining two competing weeklies, the Angola Herald (1876) and Steuben Republican (1857). KPC converted it into a daily newspaper September 12, 2001.